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TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY 



FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 



MIDDLEBOEO, MASS. 



By GEORGE WARREN STEARNS 

Ovation 

By THOMAS WESTON 

■WITH 

OTHER ADDRESSES, PORTRAITS, DESCRIPTIVE CATALOG, ETC. 



MIDDLEBORO 

PUBLISHED BY THE CHURCH 

1895 



t 



TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY 



FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 



MIDDLEBORO, MASS 



^igtoxicdi 'Biecouvsc 

By GEORGE WARREN STEARNS 

Oration 
By THOMAS WESTON 

WITH 

OTHER] ADDRESSES, PORTRAITS, DESCRIPTIVE CATALOG, ETC. 



MIDDLEBORO 

PUBLISHED BY THE CHURCH 

1895 






OCT 25 19)5 



CONTENTS 



Page 
Sermon by G. W, Stearns r 



Address by N. T. Dyer 
Letter from J. W. Kingsbury 
Address by H. A. Hanaford 
Ode : " The Pilgrim Mothers '• 
Oration by Thomas Weston 



31 
39 
40 

53 



55 

Letter from Grover Cleveland 78 

Address: "The Old Meeting House," by C. W. Wood ... 79 

Address by John Eddy 87 



Address by William E. Fuller 
Letter from Morton Dexter 



9Z 
97 



Letter from John D. Long 98 

Address by Louis Ellms 99 

Address by Richard G. Woodbridge 100 

Letter from Herbert K. Job 107 

Address by Henry E. Cobb 108 

Letter from Merrill E. Gates .' '' ..-•>-. • . . . . . 109 

Letter from M. F. Johnson , . ., no 

Address by Benjamin L. Boomer . '' . ' m 



Chronological Notes 115 

Biographical Notes concerning Pastors and others . . . .116 
Descriptive Catalog of Church-Members 124 

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

The Meeting House in 1894 Frontispiece 

Portraits of Pastors Putnam, Sawyer, Hidden, Sawin . Facing 15 

Portraits of Pastors Dyer, Hanaford, Kingsbury, Stearns . . " 24, 



Portrait of Thomas Weston 



55 



Portrait of Joshua Eddy " 73 

Portrait of Rev. Charles Wilkes Wood " 79 

Portrait of Francis Greenleaf Pratt, Jr " 92 



Portrait of Zechariah Eddy 



95 



Portrait of Thomas Weston, Sr " 120 

3 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE 



At a business meeting of the First Congregational Church 
in Middleboro, April 15, 1894, it was voted to provide for a 
suitable observance of the two hundredth anniversary of the 
organization of the church. 

A strict reckoning from the original organization, December 
26, 1694, — correcting the old style calendar, — would bring 
the bi-centennial celebration January 6, 1895. It was presently 
determined to hold the commemorative exercises not in mid- 
winter, but in a season favorable for the largest possible attend- 
ance of friends. The date chosen was August 26, 27, 1894. 

On those days the celebration was accordingly held, and was 
highly successful, the weather being all that could be desired, 
and the meeting-house tilled to overflowing. The current 
newspapers gave numerous details not here mentioned, ac- 
counts specially full appearing in the Boston Herald^ the 
jNIiddleboro Gazette, and the Middleboro JVews. 

The church feels thankful to a very large number of our 
townspeople, as well as to many other friends who, by their 
presence, their letters, their spoken words, their gifts, or their 
other assistance, have laid us under lasting obligation to them 
for the success of the occasion. 

The committee was later instructed to prepare a fitting 
memorial volume. The result of their pleasant work is now 
submitted to the pul)lic, in the hope that the host of friends of 



6 ESTTRODUCTOEY NOTE 

the First Church, though widely scattered, may find in these 
pages not only much interest, but a quickening of Christian 
longing for the triumph of Christ and his Church, and for the 
enrolling duly on earth of all those who hope to he enrolled in 
heaven. 

G. W. STEARNS, 

A. H. SOULE, 

A. J. WOOD, 

E. F. THOMPSON, 

H. F. WOOD, 

C. F. CORNISH, 

CLARA A. COX, 

SARAH E. STEARNS, 

SARAH F. C. SPARROW, 

LUCY S. BLISS, 

Committee. 
1895, May. 



J 



EXERCISES IN COMMEMORATION 

OF THE 

TWO HUE"DEEDTH AISTl^IYEESART 

OF THE 

FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 



SUNDAY, AUGUST 26, 1894 

The exercises of Sunday opened with a morning prayer- 
meeting at the parsonage. 

At the meeting-house, which had been tastefully adorned 
with flowers and Ijunting, the worship began at 10.45, with the 
following order : — 

Okgan Voluntary, " Laus Deo" Morrison 

By the Organist, Miss Nellie F. Wood 

DoxoLOGY and Gloria 

By the Choir and Congregation 

Prayer 

By the Pastor 

Responsive Reading, Psalms 86, 87 

By Pastor and Congregation 

Anthem, " Gloria," from Twelfth Mass Mozart 

By the Choir 

Scripture Selections, from Isaiah 62, and Ephesians 3 
By Rev. H. A. Hanaford 

Hymn-Anthem, " Jerusalem, my Glorious Home " . . Lowell 3fason 
Quartet and Chorus 

Prayer 

By Rev. N. T. Dyer 

Choral Response, "Grant, we beseech Thee, Merciful Lord " . Gounod 

Hymn, " -where are Kings and Empires now?" Tune, " Tappan" . Coxe 
By Choir and Congregation 

Offertory, " Cross and Crown " Dana 

Sermon 

By the Pastor 

7 



FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 



TWO CENTURIES IN GOD'S WORK 

. . . "What must we do, that we may work the works of God?" Jesus 
answered and said unto them, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him 
whom he hath sent," John vi, 28, 29. 

Men have ever been believers in God. The tendency to 
believe in him is everywhere apparent, as a characteristic of 
the race. It is true that in fiery periods of persecution, ages 
before this ancient church was gathered, the early Christians 
were charged with being atheists, because they had no idols. 
And it is true that the prince of Greek philosophers, for a 
reason not very different, was cruelly condemned to drink the 
hemlock, though the falsity of the accusation is abundantly 
proved by what his beloved disciples, Plato and Xenophon, 
have told of their illustrious teacher, for Socrates, like our 
Savior, left no writings, and, again strangely like him, fur- 
nished to his followers a large part of the luster of their 
names. 

Even of barbarians, as well as cultivated nations supposed 
to believe in many gods, it is w^ell established that some one 
among their divinities was supreme. Under some name — 
Zeus, or Jove, or Joss, or the great spirit Manitou, of the 
Indians whom John Eliot so wonderfully Christianized in this 
very region two hundred and fifty years ago — human beings 
have steadily borne their witness to the Jehovah who made 
them in his image. 

Whoever believes in God might naturally 1)6 found raising the 
question which was put to the Master in the Capernaum syna- 
gogue. Our Lord had just counseled men to work not for 
perishable food, like loaves and fishes, but for something 
better. Then came the question, blunt but not unwelcome, 
" What must Ave do that we may work the works of God ? " as 
if they reasoned, " We believe in God ; perhaps he has some 
work for us to do ; we have but a short time to stay here, and 



BICENTENNIAL SER3ION V 

ought to make no mistake about that work ; this wonder- 
working teacher migiit tell us just what constitutes such work ; 
we will ask him." 

Some would have answered as it is often said now, " God's 
work means giving l)read to the hungry ; it is helping your 
poor neighbors to clothing and shelter, or perhaps to mental 
food, like books." And they would point to Christ's own 
words about a cu]3 of cold water, and about l^eing hungry, 
sick, or naked, and then relieved. 

But such a reply is obvious. "These ye ought to have 
done," indeed, but there was a certain other vital thing not to 
be left undone . One need not preach to common men the duty 
of not flying at each other's throats. But ordinary people may 
well be counseled against certain real dangers ; for instance, 
cherishing hateful feelings. Therefore Jesus, in the Sermon 
on the Mount, instead of merely repeating the commandment, 
"Thou shalt not kill," preaches against a hateful spirit, effec- 
tively showing that the familiar rules about murder, adultery, 
etc., had more meaning than was on their surface. Only a 
hardened wretch would withhold literal bread from the starv- 
ing. That ordinary men would leave undone their duty in 
that connection there was, and is, little likelihood. There was, 
however, oji-eat danger of men failing to see the work of God 
in a certain aspect which Christ proceeded at once to reveal. 

The claim is often made that there has been a sweeping and fun- 
damental change in preaching, and that the old doctrines are no 
longer believed, and in proof it is alleged that certain sterner 
features of Bible teaching receive less emphasis or find less fre- 
quent utterance than formerly. Yet the modern is not " another 
gospel." It would be more truthful to say that the alert church 
seeks in every epoch to choose out of the wealth of her treasury 
of Christian truth such ideas as Milton might style 

"... wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best"; 

in other words, such as are best suited to the varying condi- 
tions of the particular age, and therefore most likely to be 



10 FIEST CHURCH, MIDDLEBOEO 

effective. So a queen may select from her wardrobe the gar- 
ment most becoming the special occasion ; or take from her 
jewel-case whatever gem is most adapted to the time, but liy 
no means throws away those not then used. 

Accordingly, when Jesus hears the simple question, couched 
in terms so plain, "What is God's work?" instead of uttering 
truths which any one's common sense would suggest, and say- 
ing, " Relieve the distressed," he replies : " God's work is to 
believe on him whom he hath sent." When James wrote his 
New Testament letter, the same spirit must have whispered to 
him to make his description of pure religion include not simply 
the obvious features, such as helping the class typified by the 
widow and fatherless, but also keeping unspotted from the world. 
The former duty is plain ; the second might easily be neglected. 
In a word, one must attend to spiritual cleansing — a work, 
it will be discovered, which can be done only l)y the blood of 
Christ. 

Things not material ever run a risk of being ignored. One 
side of a truth is so vividly seen that men hastily deem it the 
only side. The temporal necessities of men are so imperiously 
thrust upon our attention that many a good and intelligent man 
allows himself to suppose that the main mission of the church 
in the world is to furnish material aid to the destitute ; as if 
to be heart-hungry were not worse. A recent startling l)Ook,i 
written by a devoted Christian, would seem to foster the 
impression that humanitarianism is the sum of the gospel. 
When we contemplate the fierce pressure of congested misery, 
poverty, and sin, such as every great town discloses, we can 
be excused for a temporary mistake. Yet is there not a plain 
contrast between the shallow and the profound answer to the 
question : What constitutes God's work in the world ? 

Hushing the din of past centuries' debating aliout faith and 
works, comes the statement of Jesus which many people have 
strangely overlooked. The work of God is to lielieve on 

1 "If Christ came to Chicago," by W. T. Stead. 



BICENTENNIAL SERMON 11 

Christ. Here is somethino; worthy of study, and one can 
indorse the word of old John Selden in his "Table Talk," 
when in deploring the unhappy diyision of faith and works, 
likenino- them to the light and heat of a candle, he said, " Nay ; 
In a right conception, fides est opus; if I belieye a thing because 
I am commanded, that is ojms." 

If this is true, it follows that helping others to l)elieye on 
Christ is also God's work, for his Son's final and meinoral^le 
order was to go and make disciples of all the nations, teach- 
ing them to ol)serye all his commands. 

Such a work, then, — belieying and helping others to belieye 
on Christ, — is what for two centuries this historic church has 
been doing. In a spirit far from boastful do we throng this 
meeting-house to-day. It is glory enough for any or all men 
to haye done hum])lest seryices for our Lord. Yet we feel a 
proper pride in the thought that for these many generations 
our ancestors and ourselyes haye been really, though humbly, 
doing God's work in holding up the cross of Christ, like a l)eacon 
that eyer shines while it '* stands and waits." Whateyer our 
church has left undone, — and doubtless that is much, — will 
any one deny that she has stood for righteousness, for God, 
and for God's work, eyer since that winter day in 1694, when 
those nine women and eleyen men organized under the leader- 
ship of reyered Samuel Fuller, whose dust on yonder hill-top is 
yet awaiting the Master's word to arise ? 

It is a blessed thing, not to be underrated, simply to take a 
stand before the world as a seryant of God. Thateyen score of 
honored fathers and mothers in our Israel were like braye 
sailors who nail their flag to the mast, lest Ijy accident it eyeu 
seem to be lowered in surrender. Not many churches in our 
republic haye raised and kept the banner of the cross upheld 
longer than it has been done in this ancient town. And be it 
not foro-otten that those churches which, in the yicissitudes of 
time, haye become no more, haye as a rule gone down as the 
"Cumberland" sank in Hampton Roads, more than thirty 
years ago, with the colors still waying aboye the place where 



12 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLE BORO 

the ship was a wreck. It is our happy lot to have been sus- 
tained in healthy existence all these ages while God's truth has 
been marching on. Like Paul at the Three Taverns, let us 
to-day thank God and take courage. Substantially the same 
idea possessed the mind of your illustrious minister, when, 
iifty years since, he bade his people, including some of you who 
are spared to this day, see in the preceding century and a half 
of their history a proof of the psalmist's words which to-day 
adorn yonder wall : " Great is Thy faithfulness." 

After so interesting; and thorough a harvest of historical 
matter as was published soon after Dr. Putnam's well-known 
discourses, there is little left for the gleaner to bring from 
that early period, rich though the history proves to be. 
Let it speak for itself. We may well be embarrassed by the 
magnitude of our task. To review two himdred years in any 
way that shall be satisfactory and yet not weary all patience 
demands gifts which none of us can furnish. 

Two centuries ! Think what they mean. But the other 
day, as it were, we were celebrating the ever famous event 
of 1492. Our church dates back almost precisely half way to 
the discovery of America ; more than half way back to the 
martyrdom of the famous Florentine, Savonarola, in 1498. The 
grandfather of our first pastor might have seen Martin Luther 
and John Calvin, who died in 1546 and 1564. His father may 
have known Shakspere or Cervantes ; Mr. Fuller himself may 
have met John Milton, who Avas somewhat his senior, and John 
Bunyan, who was a little younger than he. Local chroniclers 
delight to record that one member of our church is said to have 
actually seen Oliver Cromwell, and witnessed the beheading of 
Charles I, in 1649. This was the venerable Luke Short, for 
whom yonder street where his home stood is named, and who 
attained the wonderful age of one hundred and sixteen years. 

Perhaps we may more vividly locate the date 1694, if we 
recal some famous names. William and Mary were then on 
the English throne ; bishops Berkeley and Butler were boys, 
growing up in England to help the famous Locke Christianize 



BICENTENNIAL SERMON 13 

the wayward philosophy of Spinoza, then influential in Europe ; 
the poet-laureate, John Diyden, and in France La Fontaine, 
had won their fame in the world of letters ; the great contem- 
porary names in natural science were Isaac Newton and the 
German Fahrenheit ; the renowned artists, Rembrandt and 
Murillo, had but lately passed away ; of the acknowledged kings 
in the realm of music, Handel, aged ten years, was composing 
his first sonatas, and that other musical genius. Bach, was Init a 
year younger ; as an explorer, Bering the Dane was about to 
achieve his fame ; while in our own country the Frenchman, 
Joliet, was exploring the Mississippi River, already visited by 
his countryman, Jacques Marquette, whose name and Christian 
character still live around the Great Lakes ; William Penn and 
Cotton Mather were in the midst of life ; Harvard College was 
but a child of fifty-five years, while six years must pass Ijefore 
old Yale would be born. 

During Thomas Palmer's pastorate, Gibraltar came into 
English possession. 

While youthful Peter Thacher, Jr. , fresh from our American 
Cambridge, was writing sermons in Middleboro, in the mother- 
country, Addison, Defoe, and Pope were writing for the 
world. 

Our fourth minister, Sylvanus Conant, went to Abraham's 
bosom the year before Rousseau and Voltaire, noisome blossoms 
of a century-plant of infidelity and coarseness, died and were 
buried. Mr. Conant was barely twenty-five years old when 
he came. His pastorate saw American independence achieved. 

Joseph Barker, our fifth pastor, served us from 1781 to 1816, 
that stirring period when the violence of the French Revolution 
shocked the world with its atrocities ; when our nation was 
again at war : when Napoleon's boundless ambition was checked 
by the English arms at Waterloo. It was during this period 
that John Wesley was called heavenward, in 1791. Mr. Barker 
has been commended for his able, learned, and courageous work 
here, and we may thank God that then the good ship had a 
strong hand at its helm to keep it from being swept off its true 



14 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

course by the contrary winds of Unitariauism, which in the 
early years of the nineteenth century were peculiarly strong. 

Our sixth pastor, Emerson Paine, appears to have come 
hither directly from his student life, in 1816. Both he and 
his successor, AVilliam Eaton, had what in those days were 
called short pastorates, continuing respectively about six and 
ten years each. But the record of numerous new members 
whispers of faithfulness and ability on the part of these under- 
shepherds. 

The records made during our seventh pastor's service show 
the church trying to keep herself pure. She disciplined mem- 
bers for drunkenness, "hauling wood on Sunday," damming 
a brook to a neighbor's inconvenience, prolonged neglect of 
worship, etc. Some dead branches were wisely pruned away. 
In 1830 was observed a day of fasting and prayer ^ for the Sun- 
day school. It was in Mr. Eaton's day that the church joyfully 
entered into its present comely house, whose outlines of stain- 
less white seem to our fond eyes as fair as Ionian marble. 

In 1835 came our eighth minister. We now approach a 
time so near to the present that to enumerate particulars revives 
many memories. 

This very Sabbath day, perhaps this very hour, measures 
sixty years, save one, since a new face appeared in this pulpit. - 
The stranger had a smooth-shaven countenance, was about forty- 
eight years old, and was evidently a gentleman and scholar. 
He was of medium stature, and had a benign, dignilied bear- 
ing. Fifty-nine years ago last evening, seated probably 
in the ancient Sproat Tavern, which, till 1891, stood oppo- 
site the parsonage, he began a letter to his family, giving his 
first impressions of our town. He remarks the serene land- 
scape, and the roominess of the church environs. Never 
dreaming of the later publicity of his letter, he proceeded to 
record his feelings as he realized that his preaching on that 
August Sunday was destined either to soften or harden the 

' For answer, see page 20. 

^ 1835, Aug. 23, was the Sunday referred to. 





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BICENTENNIAL SER3I0N 15 

hearts of his hearers. When it is added that he had just 
driven from Portsmouth, N. H., I have said more than 
enough to reveal who was the strange preacher of that morn- 
ing. It was Israel Warburton Putnam, known and loved by 
thousands in this vicinity for his works' sake, and even now 
by hundreds remembered most affectionately. 

Little thought Mr. Putnam, it is likely, as he first preached 
the words of life to the old church associated with the fame of 
Thacher, Conant, and Barker, that he himself was destined to 
add his own name with honor to that list of veteran ministers 
who had here preached thirty-six, thirty-three, and thirty-five 
years, respectively. But it was even so, and for a round score 
and a half of years it was his happy lot to tell the people of 
Middleboro and vicinity of the love and work of our Savior 
God. 

After his college days at Harvard and Dartmouth had ended, 
in 1809, he began to read law, but ere long, quickened spirit- 
ually, it is said, by contact with a youthful college mate, 
Daniel Poor, who later Avas an eminent missionary in Ceylon, 
young Mr. Putnam felt that mysterious pressure which Chris- 
tians commonly interpret as the Master's wish, in the direction 
of the ministry. At some sacrifice of temporary feelings (per- 
haps a greater sacrifice than the record shows), he yielded, 
and found the new choice l)lest. When he took up his resi- 
dence in this region of peculiar historic interest, he speedily 
formed warm friendships with the neighboring pastors, among 
whom in time he became a Nestor. He was young enough 
to bring ardent hopes and enthusiasm. He was sufliciently 
mature to profit by the wisdom gained from his twenty years 
of pastoral service in Portsmouth. The records of this church 
during his long stay are by his own hand, and they trip lightly 
over his own large share in molding the religious life of the 
town. Happily, there are too many of his friends surviving to 
make it difficult to learn how much his personal service meant. 
He was able, like Caesar, to know the names of his soldiers ; 
nay, rather like the Good Shepherd, to know his own sheep 



10 FIKST CHURCH, 3IIDDLEBORO 

and call them by name. He pushed the Christian work in 
neighborhood meetings. Deeming the chapel unsuited to 
evening meetings, he held them, as they are still frequently 
held, in cottages and school-houses, his familiar announce- 
ment being "at early candle-light." Once in two months 
there was a day prayer-meeting, and on the first Sabbath 
of each month a missionary concert of prayer for the conversion 
of the world. It has been said that he took considera])le 
worldly satisfaction in his fleet horse and chaise, yet for every 
tongue mentioning that surely ten tell of his love for this 
church, for many of you who rememl^er him, and for your 
sires. 

Though Dr. Putnam was a firm believer in government by 
the people in both civil and ecclesiastical affairs, l)eing therein 
thoroughly Congregational, he was a genuine bishop, ordained 
of God, if ever one was. And as such, this courtly combina- 
tion of aristocrat and democrat went about doing good unto 
all men. He baptized the children ; when they were grown 
they came from far and near to be joined in marriage by him ; 
he welcomed them, when they were ready, into the fellowship 
of the church ; in sickness and trouble he ministered to them ; 
and in this sacred place, and in nearly every home in this 
town, he bade hundreds of them farewell, who had winged 
their way from earth's fatigue to heaven's rest. 

His ministry here had begun, it is said, in a somewhat dis- 
turbed, if not partly disaffected, parish. Though his advent 
was by no means like the feat of his redoubtable kinsman. 
Gen. Israel Putnam, famed for entering the wolf's den, yet it is 
greatly to his praise that he proved a " peacemaker." ^ A note- 
worthy characteristic of our doctoi^ angelicus was his tenderness 
of others' feelings. If anywhere, it must have been here that 
he erred — in being too gentle and considerate. Sometimes, 
instead of speaking, he would write a note about Christ to 
impart to some friend a special impulse, at once delicate and 

1 See Rev. N. T. Dj^er's sermou in 1878, at the semi-ceuteunial of the dedi- 
cation of the present meeting-house. 



BICENTENNIAL SERMON 17 

effective. He was accustomed to mark his initials upon vari- 
ous articles of property on the parsonage premises. Those 
marks have mostly disappeared. Not so what he marked 
indelibly on the hearts of our townspeople. Here is a char- 
acteristic entry from his record in 1842, hinting plainly his 
high opinion of what the church should ])e. Twenty-eight 
men and fifty women had met at two o'clock in the vestry. 
"The brethren," we read, "made free disclosure of their feel- 
ings and their views of the prospects of religion among us. 
Generally their hearts aj^peared to be low. There were, how- 
ever, some exceptions. On the whole, the meeting was solemn, 
and I think important. I exhorted the church to awake from 
their sleep and call upon GOD." 

So the years passed, bringing the peculiar blessings of a 
long pastorate. The Lord came into his garden several times 
with reviving power, as the modest records of the pastor could 
ill conceal, and pastor and people repeatedly rejoiced together 
over new Christians. A word-picture is given of a row of 
inquirers seated on the sofa at the south side of the parsonage 
parlor, and Dr. Putnam leaning forward, with a hand upon 
each arm of the chair which he had drawn up before them, 
earnestly asking all how it was with them. 

One special wish of Dr. Putnam was fulfilled. He had said 
that if he could have his preference, he would choose, as a time 
to die, a period of revival. In just such a condition, when he 
was living retired in the old mansion yonder on Plymouth 
Street (then known as the Dr. Sturtevant house), when his 
successor, Mr. Sawyer, had become pastor, and a great revival 
was actually in progress, disease came upon him. Happily, he 
was able to share for a time in the joyful scenes. He de- 
lighted to learn the names of all the new l^elievers. It is said 
by one of them that he would sometimes set forth ideals of the 
Christian life so exalted as almost to discourage the converts. 
While showers of blessing were still falling upon our town, 
the last enemy drew near, and l)egan to rob Dr. Putnam of the 
remnants of his strength. Some weeks of pain and feebleness 



18 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

preceded his final victory. It was in May, 18G8, one Sunday 
when the church was to sit at the communion table, when the 
sun had risen above the ocean high enough to shine over the 
eastern pines into his windows, that God's messenger seemed 
to hear the " striving" man cry, "Let me go, for the day break- 
eth ! " In the glory of the Salilmth morn. Dr. Putnam was 
more than conqueror. 

At the impressive funeral service. Dr. Elijah Dexter, by 
previous mutual arrangement, would have preached the memo- 
rial sermon, had not Dr. Putnam already had the sorrowful 
privilege of speaking over the Plympton pastor's remains. So 
the office fell to a son, afterw^ard the distinguished scholar, 
Dr. Henr}^ M. Dexter. The sermon i reveals anew" the 
modesty of the widely lamented pastor. The preacher had 
been pledged by him that eulogy should be waived, and when 
the time came, the promise made no slight embarrassment for 
the speaker thus hampered. Dr. Putnam's remains w^ere 
o-ently borne to God's acre yonder, where they now repose, 
distant but a few rods from this pulpit where his living hands 
and voice w^ere so often raised in loving appeal or benedic- 
tion. Go, see the white shaft of marble. Shall this old 
church ever be blest with his like again? Certain it is that he, 
being dead, yet speaketh. For many a 3'ear to come tradi- 
tions will linger, and keep the revered name fragrant. In 
time, some avenue or park in our town will ])ear his name. 
But no such memorial needs he, whose enduring monument is 
in the hearts of men. 

The new minister who came in February, 1866, was Rufus 
Morrill Sawyer. He was born in Maine, in 1820, and next 
Saturday would be his birthday. Like his distinguished 
predecessor, he came hither from a New Hampshire church, 
and likewise began his work here in the maturity of his powers. 
Mr. Sawyer had entered the ministry somewhat late in life, 
having previously preached but seven and five years, in two 



1 Printed at the Middleboro Gazette office. 



BICEXTEXMAL SERMOX 19 

parishes. He was of size alcove the average, with dark hair, 
and a physique apparently robust. But appearance was mis- 
leading. We are told that in his first parish he had labored 
hard in circumstances requiring peculiar grace and diligence on 
his part, and he was never well physically after leaving it. 
Thank God, Mr. Sawyer was well in other respects, as many 
could to-day testify- who during his stay were brought out of 
the world's poverty into the wealth of the Christian life. It 
was his glory and joy to witness the most sweeping triumph 
of the gospel which this region has seen since the great revival 
that gladdened good Mr. Thacher, in 1742. The veteran Dr. 
Putnam had rejoiced in some goodly gains, l)ut, as we have 
observed, greater ones were reserved to thrill his eyes and 
heart before God took him away like Moses from Pisgah. 
These aisles and pews, in March, INIay, and July of the memo- 
rable year 18(57, saw scores of people, young and old, standing 
and pressing forward to receive before this pulpit the right 
hand of welcome into this venerable church. In that one year, 
one hundred and three joined our company (all but five by 
confession of faith), of whom many continue to this day. If 
any historian were to omit mention of those happy scenes, I 
fancy, as Hal)akkuk says, the beams would cry out their pro- 
test from the voiceless wall. O l)lessed days departed ! would 
that your counterpart might thrill us with new gladness, as in 
those months when angels must have looked on with rapture, 
as if exclaiming, " AVho are these that fly as a cloud, and as the 
doves to their windows?" 

For all this wonderful story I am sure the happy pastor of 
the epoch would be the last to claim the praise. Dr. Putnam 
and Mr, Sawyer were God's husbandmen. One had indeed 
planted, the other watered, but neither gave the increase. That 
was God. Yet what lover of Christ would not exult to ])e 
connected with an experience of the sort? Let us not care too 
much who holds the sickle, provided only the precious grain is 
harvested seasonably into the garner of Him to whom it belongs. 
How can the world be deaf to the Master's words ? " All souls 



20 FIRST CHUECH, MIDDLEBORO 

are mine ; " . . . " Will a man rob God ? " . . . " Render . . 
unto God the things that are God's." 

Mr. Sawyer's ministry was blest, both before and after his 
Middleboro life, with powerful religious awakenings. Before 
the congregation he was vigorous and persuasive, and he Avas 
peculiarly strong and winning in his frank and persistent 
preaching, face to face, with individual men. Here is a tableau : 
A winter day ; a two-horse sled is moving along the neighbor- 
ing highway, squeaking and groaning under its heavy load 
of wood ; behind it on foot, to keep warm, two men are 
trudging ; one is Mr. Sawyer ; they are earnestly talking, but 
we are sure their topic is not roads, nor weather, nor politics. 
The next scene is in this meeting-house a few weeks later ; the 
same two men stand before the congregation, and one of the 
two is for the first time doing what the Savior bade men do 
in remembrance of him. The picture is typical. In the case 
above cited, the man had been a secret and negative Christian 
for some time, but the ninth pastor brought him out to show 
his Lord's colors, and be counted. 

The Sunday school used to meet only from April or May to 
December, before My. Sawyer came. Thenceforward, its ses- 
sions lasted through the year, like the evergreen foliage of 
our pines. 

Many recal Mr. Sawyer in his assiduous devotion to pas- 
toral labor, — that task so delightful, yet in some respects so 
wearing, which makes the minister's life the happiest, and yet, 
strange to say, burdensome. One friend exclaims: "How 
that man did walk ! He would travel on foot through drifted 
snows for miles in succession." For his health, think you? 
For exercise ? To kill time ? How absurd the questions ! 
He was on his Master's business, to catch men — and he caught 
them. 

O, how plain is the teaching of that life ! Would that we 
Christians of to-day might all feel as Mr. Sawyer felt about 
God's work, — " How am I straitened till it be accomplished ! " 
Perhaps we may heed a warning, too. For his habit was, it 



BICENTENNIAL SERMON 21 

seems, to work as he walked, fast and hard, possil)ly too hard. 
The parsonage sheltered a large family, yet for his neighbors 
he was ready to spend and be spent, not sparing himself. The 
sequel is sadly brief. A throat difficulty seized him, and in 
1869, resigning his charge, he moved to Iowa, hoping that the 
inland air might bring relief. Before he was fairly settled, 
typhoid fever invaded his new home ; two of his children were 
taken, and though he recovered, his restoration was l)ut partial. 
A brief journey afforded little help. His hour was at hand. 
It was in the year 1872 that his great heart cried to God for 
special grace, which he surely needed and doubtless received, 
to aid him in parting from his wife and five children remain- 
ing. From LeMars, Iowa, when New England's millions were 
in the hight of their Thanksgiving joy, this man of God was 
caught up to Paradise. 

Ah, there was a workman needing not to he ashamed. His 
three short years of service here left a fadeless picture for the 
inspiration of us and our children. His is a heroic figure in 
our history. Falser has sung, — 

" O, it is hard to work for God, 
To rise and take liis part 
Upon this battle-Held of earth, 
And not sometimes lose heart ! " 

Yet the magnificent lesson is before us in Mr. Sawyer's life, 
that the work of God pays sweeter rewards than they surmise 
who have not enlisted in it. 

After a slight interval, there came, in 1869, your tenth minis- 
ter, Ephraim Nelson Hidden. He was liorn and educated in New 
Hampshire. Day after to-morrow will l)e the anniversaiy of 
both his l)irtli and marriage. It will then l^e eighty-four years 
since his liirth. He is, of course, well remembered by many 
persons present. He is described as a solid and portly man in 
stature, and as wearing a black beard. His ao-e on beo-inuino- 
work here was sixty, even greater than that of his experienced 
predecessors. Mr. Hidden was at once recognized as a man 
of decided talent, though not of the showy sort. While some 



22 FIRST CHURCH, 3IIDDLEBORO 

rated him conservative in his methods, all seem to have acknowl- 
edged him as beyond question a man of ability. Evidently he 
was a good, old-fashioned, scholarly preacher. He is spoken 
of as being somewhat animated in his preaching of the gos- 
pel, and in his practising of it a pattern of honor. He had 
declined the church's first formal call, owing perhaps to some 
local conditions which disposed him to hesitate, and for the 
same reason it may be that his work among us was more ardu- 
ous than it might have been. But he was no child, to let any 
trivial circumstance baffle him, and he faithfully preached his 
Master's word, welcoming fifteen new members. After his 
resignation he preached for six years in Edgartown and Norfolk. 
One November Sunday he preached twice in East Medway, 
and before the Saljbath was past he was taken to his eternal 
home. His age, when the end came, — or rather when the 
glory began for him, — was more than seventy. His memory 
is that of the just. It is blessed. 

Theophilus, " lover of God," was the appropriate baptismal 
name of your eleventh pastor, Theophilus Parsons Sawin,i who 
began work here in 1875. He was equipped with a ripe experi- 
ence of nearly fifty-eight years, and his name is well known in 
New England. Of his physical appearance some have remarked 
a certain likeness to our most recent ex-pastor. 

Mr. SaAvin earnestly took up his blessed labor, and speedily 
won the esteem and confidence of the people. He was not so 
youthful as to excite questions as to his capability, nor yet so 
old as to raise doubts of his efficiency. Men pronounce him an 
excellent preacher. In some particulars he showed a marked 
contrast to his predecessor. Where Mr. Hidden would have 
been cool and collected, Mr. Sawin would be inclined to vehe- 
mence of feeling, though he was, I judge, ever master of himself. 
The value of both these qualities is well conceded. It is cer- 
tain that Mr. Sawin was a devoted minister, a fluent speaker, 
up with the times, progressive, animated, and interesting in 

' Born 1817 Feb. i, in Natick, Mass. 



BICENTENNIAL SERMON 23 

both public and private life. He welcomed forty into our fel- 
lowship on confession of faith. In December, 1877, he left us, 
and became pastor in Lyndeboro, N. II. Seven years later he 
moved to Medford, ]\Iass.,and a tombstone there tells us that 
in a year so recent as 1886^ he w^as summoned to a heavenly 
mansion. 

It is fitting at this point to pause a moment in our prolonged 
yet incomplete review of this church in the seventeenth, eigh- 
teenth, and nineteenth centuries . Our pastors thus far described 
— eleven true modern apostles — are all now glorified. Their 
average term of service in this place was above seventeen years. 
Four of them died between fifty and sixty years old ; three in 
their sixties ; three in their seventies ; and Dr. Putnam, the 
veteran wdio was spared to eighty-one, In'ought the measure of 
their earthly life to the goodly average of sixty-five years. 

We now come in our consideration to times that have no 
antiquity about them. One hundred and eighty-four years have 
been reviewed. "There were giants in those days." Now a 
new period begins. In 1878, there was restored the era of 
comparatively young men in this pastorate. The welcome 
presence of two of my happy predecessors on this occasion 
makes it difiicult for the present speaker to esca})e eml)arrass- 
ment, save by throwing it upon Messrs, Dyer, Hanaford, and 
Kingsbury. Happily, this recent period is well known. Let 
us, however, note a few^ events in this trio of pastorates. 

The afternoon sermon was dispensed with, not without mis- 
giving on the part of some, lest the action be an unworthy 
surrender to drowsy powers. The loss was met by more 
frequent school-house meetings in outlying districts, and by 
regular evening worship. 

In 1888, the Putnam Christian Endeavor Society was 
organized, and to this we owe much of our present enthusiasm 
and hope. Born in weakness, it soon grew in strength, and has 
become an increasing power in the work of God. 

' Jan. 19. 



24 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

Perhaps the social qualities in earlier generations were 
cultivated more than it has lieen commonly supposed, ])ut 
certainly the period now under review has witnessed a marked 
unifying of our church's social life, and our second century in 
departing sees our healthy old church solidified and strengthened 
])oth socially and spiritually by its youthful element. Many 
material blessings elsewhere noted have come in these latter 
days, and they give us cause for gratitude. Only sickness or 
other weighty reasons have cut short the pleasant and fruitful 
pastorates of my three immediate predecessors, whose place in 
the hearts of our people is still secure. 

It is surely a matter for rejoicing that these fourteen men, 
whose service so nearly fills two hundred years, were all worthy 
— men of prayer, men of God. It is almost ungracious even 
to hint at one being temporarily under discipline in the early 
years of the eighteenth century. Hear again those significant 
Bible names : Samuel, Thomas, Peter, Joseph, Israel, Ephraim, 
Theophilus, Nathan, Josiah. In their meaning, their associa- 
tion, and especially their personality, we may feel naught but 
satisfaction to have them with the rest in our pastoral catalog. 

There is one serious omission in our annals. What of 
those sweet-spirited counselors who in quiet ways have con- 
tributed perhaps as much as have these honored fourteen to 
Christ's cause — the women of the parsonage ? Most of the 
unadvertised labors of these gentle and silent partners are 
beyond the reach of a modern student. As far as we can 
learn, they were worthy helpmeets, while having, of course, 
their own wavs of thinkina^ and workino-. 

Mrs. Eaton is pleasantly remembered as a Sunday-school 
teacher. 

Of Mrs, Putnam a friend testifies : "I always had something 
good to think al)out after visiting her." She was naturally 
disposed to be conservative in her view of woman's sphere and 
work. In her day, it was none but a brave lady who would 
sometimes speak in a social gathering of Christians. 

Everybody loved Mrs. Sawyer. She was -always helpful. 



■^^^ 





^ jf^^;^^^^^ M-^- .?^^<^A-^. 




c 



^H^^ 




i 



V ^' 







BICENTENNIAL SERMON 25 

and knew how to sympathize with mothers in the parish, even 
if like her they had a set of seven children to bless the home. 
Keturning from her western abode, she used occasionally to 
visit Middlel)oro. Her benevolences were largely private, but 
they cannot be entirely hidden even at this date. 

Like stories are told of Mrs. Hidden. She is said to have 
))een a very quiet woman, but a very Christlike one. Her 
daughter had musical gifts, and during the residence here of 
the family, there was an increased interest in music. 

Mrs. Sawin was a Dorcas, though doubtless not the first one 
to merit that title among the mistresses of our manse. She 
loved and clothed certain unlovely but needy persons, and her 
charities are not forgotten. 

About Mrs. Dyer, Mrs. Hanaford, and Mrs. Kingsliury 
cluster many vivid and affectionate remembrances. The tale 
of their gracious influences, like those of our goodly succes- 
sion of honoralile women from the beginning, might easily be 
prolonged, ])ut it cannot he told in full. All appear to have 
been esteemed, and all were workers. 

Our churchly republic has not been ungrateful to its lead- 
ers, and their service seems to have been both consecrated and 
efficient. The First Church has encountered some trouliled 
waters, but a mighty Hand has steered us safely through them. 
It has been remarked that a popular civil government might 
occasionally profit l>y the temporary aid of a wise king ; some- 
times it may be that our church would have l)een a gainer by 
the touch of some wise prelate's hand, yet on the whole we are 
content to rejoice in our church without a bishop, and our 
state without a king, — rather, let us say, a church with 
thousands of liishops, and a state where all may be kings. As 
lono- as believers are not saints, it would be strange indeed if 
trials should not arise. There was, in 1830, a considerable 
disaffection in the parish, l)ut there have been no serious 
trouliles of late years, perhaps liecause our members have been 
intent upon the work of God. 

When we look upon this yellow record book, kept by Peter 



26 FIRST CHURCH, 3IIDDLEBORO 

Thacher, and dating from 1708, at the other precious old 
keepsakes in quaint penmanship and antiquated printing, still 
treasured in our archives, we feel somewhat like those visitors 
who see in the British Museum the famous but shrunken 
parchment, now well-nigh seven centuries old, that tells of 
English liberty. We review the history of these godly men 
and women, our predecessors in this church, who in one sense 
have all faded as a leaf, yet are still living with us in fragrant 
memory ; we recal that we are in the same succession, and 
our hearts cry, in the verses of Heber, — 

" O God, to US may grace be given 
To follow in their train." 

Would that we might speak of what our church did to pro- 
mote the sound doctrine of freedom, in the times when " aboli- 
tionist " was not what the term later became, a title of honor ; 
of the affectionate reluctance with which Dr. Putnam and 
his flock gave so much of their life to the new-born Central 
Church ; of the longings and prayers which followed the 
soldiers whom we furnished to the Union in its peril from 
rebellion ; of certain notable triumphs of God's grace, for 
example, of Jephtha Leach, a dissipated man, but gifted, hav- 
ing what Augustin would call splendida vitia. When more 
than fourscore years old he was saved, and joined our brother- 
hood. From the tavern that then stood hard l)y, friends used 
to lead him hither, and during worship the blind old man used 
habitually to stand on these pulpit stairs, lest, with his imper- 
fect hearing, he might lose some precious word of the gospel 
that his soul needed. Though blind, deaf, and in poverty 
because of his sins, he needs no pity now, for he was rich 
toward God ; he kept the faith for a year, and, twenty-seven 
years ago yesterday, was made free indeed from all infirmity. 
" Regarding the reality of revivals, some communities may be 
skeptical, but our community is not one of them." May God 
keep believers of late times so faithful that it shall never 
become so. 



BICENTENNIAL SEEMON 27 

As long ago as 1842, fermented wine was l)anished from our 
communion table. But time forbids further details of these 
two centuries, that have seen our membership grow to fourteen 
hundred, lacking six. The First Church has ever been a foun- 
tain flowing for others. This is proved, though defects in 
early records preclude exact figures, by a great preponderance 
of dismissions over gains by letter. May the Savior keep 
the stream pure, that its flow may long refresh the region 
about it. 

Such is the rapid story of these two hundred years, — a story 
prolonged, yet incomplete as a landscape viewed from a flying 
car. One shining fact appears like a monarch among mountains. 
It is that emphasized fifty years ago l)y our illustrious Dr. 
Putnam, in his two discourses on God's faithfulness. In a 
period so extended, one cannot ignore His superintending care. 
Nature sometimes speaks indistinctly of the Creator, while of all 
studies history reveals Him most plainly. Sometimes an intel- 
ligent man has studied rocks without finding what Hugh Miller 
styled their "testimony." A man may be well informed about 
the internal structure of the crawfish, and yet quite fail to per- 
ceive God therein revealed. But a strange mind must he have 
who studies human nature without finding the One in whose 
image men are made. If at rare intervals there be a famous 
student of history who is an unbeliever, a Gil)bon or Niebuhr, 
the world hears of it as a singular phenomenon. 

To make the present history is our concern. Shall the 
prayers of past generations for us l)e heard ? the prayers offered 
in 1694? again in the revival that blest New England, and 
especially our own town, in 1742? in the centennial year, 1794, 
by Joseph Barker's people? in 1828, when William Eaton's 
flock consecrated this stately house? in 1845, when the third 
half-century had closed? in the great revival of 18G7? at the 
jubilee of this sanctuary's dedication, celebrated in 1878, during 
Mr. Dyer's pastorate? At the dedication they sang the hymn 
of Watts, which is a prayer for the reign of Christ, beginning : 
"Arise, O King of grace, arise!" 



28 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

On US depends the fulfilment of the hopes of all those former 
times. Let us lead lives of such healthful activity that the 
Savior will often visit his "plantation," where abide the people 
of the First Church and their neighbors, — his "husbandry." 

We read of ten thousand Greek soldiers returning homeward 
from far-aAvay Persia after the death of Cyrus. The way was 
long and hard, but they pushed on, till one day the front ranks 
of the marching host saw before them a broad expanse of shin- 
ing waters. A glad cry was raised, "The sea! the sea!" and 
when the rear ranks came on, the hearty shouts of thousands 
shook the hills. Yet the Black Sea was not their journey's 
end. Ah, no ! l)ut it marked for them a mighty progress toward 
their home. Our exultation to-day is somewhat similar. Our 
pilgrimage is by no means ended, Init we are glad to hafl the 
third century before us. On its border we would pause, and 
like the prophet Samuel near Mizpah, raise a "stone of help." 
Through a notable part of our journey hath the Lord helped 
us. Yonder is home ! 

Now let us earnestly seek the spiritual welfare of others. 
Let us be content with nothing less than the utmost efficiency 
of our working powers. Let us live as if the motto were 
visibly blazoned above the capitals of yonder pillars : " Middle- 
l)oro for Christ !" Yea, be our watchword : " The world for 
Christ." 

Li these days, if ever, men need a forceful gospel. Social 
studies have properly come to the front. O, forget not, in 
God's name, that amid the literally hungry are brothers with a 
soul-hunger still harder to bear ! Let us be sure that they 
miss not the bread that came doAvn from heaven, while we 
strive to supply their material want. Multitudes in our own 
midst who are quite free from temporal distresses need to ))e 
lovingly taught what Christ said is God's work. They need 
you and me to urge, in behalf of Him of the pierced hands : 
"Ye believe in God, l^elieve also in me." The Comforter, said 
Jesus, will convict men "of sin, ])ecause they l^elieve not on 
me." 



BICENTENNIAL SER3ION 29 

God knows, the old First Church keenly feels her deficien- 
cies, but sometimes our vision is so enthralled by our Lord 
that we forget all else. We mean to rejoice temperately, and 
not because some demon of unbelief or indifference is subject 
to us, so much as because our names, we trust, are written 
in heaven. Can we not almost hear a voice saying : " Re- 
joice not that ye have a majestic temple of dignity and grace ; 
not in its verdant environs that may grow yet more fair as the 
rolling years pass ; not in your two centuries of history, most 
of it inspiring, and some of it sublime ; rather rejoice in what- 
ever fidelity ye now show as ye hold up the sinless Jesus to 
the people of this town and vicinity, and to the strangers who 
come within your gates"? O, hearken to him, ye who still 
delay taking as your Master him who died for us all on the 
cross, — even ye whose lives are fair with lovely traits, like sweet 
musical sounds struck at random on some tuneful instrument, 
that ought quickly to be ordered on the heavenly theme. 
Let each one of us feel the claim — and a Christian's duty is 
no more than everybody's duty — to preach and practice 
steadily the dear gospel to which for threescore years these 
walls have echoed, and this neighborhood for ten thousand 
Sabbaths past. 

The torch-racers of Greek antiquity had not only to win the 
goal, but to reach it with their light still l)urning, though 
sometimes the torch Avas passed from one tired bearer to an- 
other. Their task typifies the work of God which it is our lot 
to perform. "We are to run in our turn with the full bright- 
ness of the true light. In the strength of our fathers' God, 
we shall not fail. 



30 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

At the conclusion of the sermon the sacrament of the Lord's 
Supper was observed, Rev. N. T. Dyer assisting the pastor, 
and Messrs. A. H. Soule, A. J. Wood, R. F. Thompson, and 
W. O. Eddy officiating as deacons. 

The congregation was dismissed with the Ijenediction by the 
pastor, and the organ posthide, "He, watching over Israel," 
from Mendelssohn's oratorio of " Elijah." 

SUNDAY EVENING 

An unusually large audience assembled for evening worship, 
and the following order was ol)served : — 

Organ Prelude, " Offertoire in B flat "... Ambrose Thomas 
Anthem, " Great God of Nations," by tlie Choir . . . .A. Beirhj 
Scripture Selection, Psalm 145, and Prayer, by Rev. R. G. Woodbridge 
Quintet, " Traveling Home to God," by Messrs. H. F. Wood, 
R. F. Thompson, W. P. Fessenden, L. I. Thompson, and 

G. A. Cox Arranged from T. C. O'Kane 

Hymn, " I love Thy Kingdom, Lord"; Tune, " State Street," 

by Choir and Congregation Dioight 

The twelfth pastor. Rev. Nathan T. Dyer, was then intro- 
duced, and his address was as follows : — 



MR. dyer's address 31 



ADDRESS OF REV. N. T. DYER 

Dear Brother Stearns, My Dear Feo^jle, — now his people, but ever the 
people of my first love : 

The first remark I have to make is one very trite and often 
to be heard during these days of grand and glorious juljilee, — 
I am most happy to be here on this deligiitful occasion, which 
shall remain ever memorable and grow increasingly precious 
with the advancing years. 

Some time ago, I remember to have met with a company of 
invited guests in a happy home to witness the unfolding of a 
rare flower into beauteous blossom. For months and years had 
that plant been watered, nourished, and cared for, with ten- 
derest solicitude, and now neighbors and friends were gathered 
with that deeply interested family to witness the first flowering, 
after so many long 3'ears of anxious waiting. Many and most 
emphatic were the expressions of delight and appreciation 
which came from those witnessing one development after 
another in that astonishing process of nature. And after 
those hours of delightful watching, we returned to our several 
homes, feeling greatly lienelited and even the wiser for having 
beheld that wonderful sight. 

With how much o-reater delis^ht and enthusiasm, with how 
much larger prospect of profit and l)lessing, are the several 
dauiihters and ii^randdauii-hters of this ancient and honored 
household of faith, with deeply interested neighbors and 
friends, now gathered to witness the bright flowering of this 
rare century ^j/(/??^, in historic interest towering majestically 
above the younger plants in the garden of the Lord : yea, 
second bursting into glory of this justly proud old church, 
during these two hundred years slowly but steadily gathering- 
strength and lieauty for its l^loom to-day. 

And so I confidently speak for others as well as for myself, 
when I say we are all more than glad and happy to be here and 



32 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

have some part in this great and glorious celebration of two 
centuries of honored and fruitful service completed, and with 
these who yet bear the burden and heat of the day, rejoice in 
the abounding evidence that our faithful God has guarded the 
foundations here laid through many successive generations by 
his faithful servants, and raised up in these last times also such 
true and faithful workers as " give assured promise of abiding 
prosperity to the glory of the Most High," and make it possi- 
ble in the coming years, so long as time shall last, to mark 
these century mile-stones, yet to be, with no more to mar and 
no less to cheer than that which now fills our hearts full to 
overflowing with glad exultation. 

Were I to voice, in the words of prophecy, the future as well 
as the past of this ancient church of the Living God, it should 
be in the words of Isaiah (Ix, 15), "I will make thee an 
eternal excellency, a joy of many generations." 

Whatever else may be said of the glory and excellence of 
other institutions, grandest creations of the noisiest human 
genius, of none can it be truly said, as of the Church it may 
be and here is affirmed, that to her l)elongs the element of 
stability and permanency expressed in the promise of God to 
the Jewish church, and meant for the encouragement of his 
people in all ages, — "I will make thee an eternal excellency." 

The truth of this assurance all history and experience have 
demonstrated. In all ages has the Church of God been pre- 
eminently the object of his delight and constant care. Under 
whatever assaults of its most bitter and determined foes in 
every form, through all its trying experiences of whatever 
kind, has the confirmation of this prophecy been verified to 
the world, that the Church of the Living God was ever dear to 
him as the apple of his eye, and should be made by him "an 
eternal excellency," and its influence, an ever-living power, be 
extended " from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of 
the earth." 

And because of the gracious fulfilment of this divine promise 
in the history of the church at large throughout the ages, we 



MR. dyer's address 33 

are here to-day assembled in joyous observance of the two hun- 
dredth anniversary of this particular church. For those blessed 
words of prophecy and of promise have as truly a specific 
application to this visible local church as to the Church uni- 
versal, — " I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of 
many generations." Yes, it is God who hath made this partic- 
ular church an eternal excellency by his manifold mercies and 
abundant grace. Wherefore, in passing this mile-stone to-day, 
we shall do well to inscribe thereupon the fitting tril^ute, 
"Hitherto hath the Lord helped us," and should make this 
" hitherto " of divine help the hopeful assurance of a glorious 
hencefortJh for this church. 

May this much now suflice concerning generalities. The 
occasion moves me to speak more along the line of personal 
reminiscence. 

You are aware that the speaker sustains a peculiar relation 
to this people, distinguishing his seven years of most happy 
service among you in some respects from that of all your other 
pastors, at least for the last century and a half. 

This was our first-love parish and our first married home. 
Here I was ordained to the ministry, being the youngest but 
one of all your pastors down to this present day. So striking 
was the contrast that, as I well remember, one now present 
then told me that in all her remembrance so aged had been the 
pastors she had come to think ministers never died ; and 
another. Col. Thomas Weston, man of fragrant memory, now 
looking down upon us from the world of glorified spirits, 
remarked that he was ghid at last to have a pastor, sound in 
body at least, being neither Idind nor deaf nor lame. 

To the older people in the parish I seemed but a mere strip- 
ling, only a boy, as indeed I Avas. After doing my liest as 
a timid and somewhat l)ashful young candidate, good old 
Deacon Thomas, who later secured a large place in my heart's 
deepest affections, now gone to his blessed reward, l)eing asked 
what he thought of me, significantly replied : " I think he did 
very well for a boy." And as marking this difference of age 



34 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

and experience in the work, you may recal the fact that soon 
after my coming the last of all my living predecessors passed 
on to receive his crown at the hand of the Lord. 

This, being our first-love parish and our first married home, 
became also the birthplace of our children and the scene of 
their baptism. 

Cora Ethel, who is with us, you will remember as the first 
parish baby, and, — other than our own dear Perley, who in the 
mysterious providence of God was early called to the tender 
Shepherd's arms, and whose headstone in yonder yard marks 
his resting place on earth, — the only child born to your pas- 
tors who have occupied the present parsonage, which is now 
approaching three quarters of a century in age. 

In view of these facts, you can easily believe me when I tell 
you that this place and people are very near and dear to us, — 
nearer and dearer, I may as Avell confess, than any other has 
since been or can ever be. 

But how came I to be your youthful pastor ? The committee 
may remember with what indifference I replied to their request 
to set a day when I would appear before you as a candidate. 
They may recal that it required not a little patience and per- 
severance on their part to secure my consent. But, after one 
failure through physical indisposition, I came at last in fulfil- 
ment of a second appointment. Imagine my surprise, not long 
after arrival in town, upon meeting another who had also come 
as a candidate for this same pulpit. At once the question was 
raised between us as to who should hold the fort. However 
magnanimous it may have seemed, with no inner feeling of 
personal sacrifice, I volunteered to make way for him. But 
your committee objected to any such arrangement, and finally 
settled the difiiculty by ticketing him back to Boston. I was 
most delightfully entertained at brother Franklin S. Thomp- 
son's, and the resulting agreeable first impressions helped 
greatly in determining my ultimate decision. 

I have in my possession a copy of Dr. Putnam's first impres- 
sions of this place and people, written to his wife in Ports- 



MR. dyer's address 35 

mouth, aDtl dated, "Middleborongh, Aug. 22, 1835," — lifty-nine 
years ago yesterday and to-day, for the letter was Avritten on 
Saturday and continued on Sunday. Speaking of "this silent 
retreat," he said, "I wonder the Society should have built their 
church here." Of the people, he wrote, "It is a plain, solid, 
good-looking congregation." My own impressions, then 
penned to one who was soon to become your pastor's wife, I 
now recal. Some things struck me on the ludicrous side. In 
those massive doors Avere the little brass knoljs, no larger than 
a medium-sized English walnut. As with some difficulty I 
reached aloft to open the door, unbidden came the thought how 
even the not very young lambs of the flock were hopelessly 
shut out in the cold unless another's hand should open to them. 
Yet another reflection, penned at that time, was the observation 
that the only appointment missing from the pulpit was a spy- 
glass to bring the choir down within counting distance. 
Wonder was also expressed at the diminutive size of the stoves 
in the vestil)ule, then the only means of heating this spacious 
auditorium ; and this moment I recal, vivid as though it were 
but yesterday, with what a smile of triumphant satisfaction the 
faithful sexton for quarter of a century or more, brother Lorin 
Bryant, not long thereafter called to service in the upper sanc- 
tuary, met my expressed doubts about the efficiency of his 
heating apparatus with the proud assurance that he had " several 
times started the frost on the northwest windows at the risrht 
of the pulpit." 

It occurred to me that here was room for improvement, and 
a good opportunity for some one to do the people a lasting 
benefit by providing for their greater comfort. Manj'- here 
present know how this was accomplished before the next 
winter by the substitution of steam heat, at the suggestion of 
your newly chosen pastor, and through the persistent energy 
and unflagging zeal of ])rother James Sparrow,^ whose thought 

' The neighboring Sparrow mansion was tlie parsonage in Joseph Barker's 
day. Men used to go there during the noon intermission of worship to re- 
plenish the foot-stoves with coals from its generous hearth. 



36 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

and service were for many 3'ears given to the interests of this 
church he so much loved. 

At our tirst meeting you were judged to he a very cordial 
and social people, which early opinion I have never found it 
necessary to change. 

After a second visit, with its interview concerning the prob- 
able acceptance of a proposed call, your committee received 
the indifferent reply, " I will not say No." Forthwith the call 
was extended. 

Not over-anxious to come, I did not hesitate to make the 
conditions of its acceptance strong enough to insure, as I 
thought, my release from all moral obligations to comply with 
your expressed wishes. Dr. Putnam, in the letter already 
cited, wrote, "Esquire Eddy says they want a minister who, 
having sermons already written, can go through the parish and 
stir up the people." 

I had no " stock " of sermons on hand, and also recognized 
the large demands upon your pastor's time for much-needed 
parish work. Therefore, the first and most important condition 
of my coming was that one of the preaching services should he 
discontinued. Much to my surprise, this and all else was 
granted by this staid old conservative church, and I was thus 
in honor forced to become your reluctant pastor. Nor have I 
once, for a single moment, regretted the direction affairs took, 
which, by the overruling providence of God, as I fully belie^'e, 
compelled me to this decision much against my inclination. 
During my seven years' stay, I found you, — 

First, a willing people, cheerfully and heartily executing 
such plans as the pastor might suggest for the good of the 
church. 

Secondly, kind and generous, bestowing upon us so many 
tokens of esteem as to supply every room in the Medfield 
parsonage with pleasant reminders of our Middleboro people. 

Thirdly, sympathetic, rendering tender and loving ministries 
in painful sickness and deep affliction. 

Fourthly, most patient, uncomplainingly making the best of 



MR. dyer's address 37 

a " boy's " mistakes, and enduring his preachinir all those years. 

Ever green in my memory are the many hallowed associa- 
tions of those years with this dear people. Most delightful 
have been the cordial greetings of this day. But I sadly miss 
from their accustomed places many of the beloved elders, so 
great are the changes ten years have wrought. Gladly do we 
see their children entering into their labors, and nobly carrying 
on the work they resigned at the call of God to higher service 
in the life beyond. 

With deep interest have I marked the growth of little ones 
we so much loved, whom then we affectionately held upon the 
knee. Some of these we baptized. Others of them also we 
prayerfully tried to lead to Christ. Of the more than fifty 
whom at this altar we received into communion and fellowship, 
there are those now filling positions of responsibility in the 
work of this church. And as we are reminded to-day of the 
two hundred golden links which number your increasing years, 
I am glad to think that I had somethinsj to do with fashionino; 
seven of them. Yea, I esteem it a rare privilege to have been 
for any length of time the honored pastor of a church with 
such a grand and noble history as has this ; and it is a great 
joy and comfort to believe, as verily I do, that much of our 
very best work for Christ and the world is done through the 
faithful lives and noble example of those whom we have helped 
to train for Christian service. 

No grander monuments are anywhere to ])e found on earth 
tlian these monuments of Christ's redeeming grace, — the 
churches of his eternal love. 

Upon all else is the stamp of universal decay. For centuries 
have stood the pyramids of old Egypt, " amid the waning glory 
of the nations which once flourished beneath their shadow^s." 
But these mightiest monuments ever reared, wdiich suffer as 
little as anything can from the friction of the passing years, 
plainly show that irresistible decay, however slowly, is never- 
theless surely doing its work upon them. Moreover, the 
worlds which make up the great universe of God report to 



38 FIRST CHURCH, MIDOLEBORO 

the inquiring scientist that they are serving onl}' u temporary 
purpose ; that some of them have ah'eady l)urned out and 
become a mere cinder, and that all the rest, including our own, 
must in their turn be reduced to the same sterile condition, 
so perishable is the substance out of which are fashioned even 
the most enduring monuments of human genius. But, to this 
unchanging and unchangeable law of decay, the Church of the 
Living God is the one grand and glorious exception. Immor- 
tal are the shining jewels built into her walls. Hers is an 
"eternal excellency." Wherefore, better, far better, were it to 
have our names inscribed upon the roll of a church which has 
completed two hundred years of most eventful and blessed 
history, than have them graven never so deeply upon loftiest 
pyramid or any most admired triumph of human genius, whicli 
shall crumble and pass away, while it lilesses nobody. 

From of old has this continued to be a Congregational church. 
It is one of the noteworthy few in our grand old denomination 
that did not, during the trying times of the early part of this cen- 
tury, forsake " the faith once delivered to the saints," but firmly 
resisted that religious error, which then swept like wild-fire 
over New England, " Jesus Christ and Him crucified " has ever 
been the grand central thought of the preaching from this 
pulpit. It has recognized the desperate condition of man as a 
lost sinner. At the same time, with no less emphasis, has it 
set forth the infinite compassion and love of Jesus, the Christ, 
as Lord and Savior. So has it hitherto unfailingly met the 
needs of the human heart. And since those needs, in their 
essence, are the same in all ages, yesterday, to-day, and for- 
ever, we may l)e sure that the same gospel of grace for lost and 
dying men, which past generations, from the first, have heard 
within the four walls of this dear old First Cono;reo:ational church 
of Middleboro, is the only gospel that can meet and satisfy the 
needs of the present, and of those who shall come after us, 
down to the latest generation. 

Such has been the teaching of this pul})it unto the present 
hour; such may it ever be. And may this people all go for- 



LETTER FROM MR. KINGSBURY 39 

ward to know more and more of Jesus and do ])etter work for 
Him. So shall the future of this ancient church be no less, if 
not even more, prosperous and illustrious than her past has 
been, and her " eternal excellency " prove to ))e the joy of each 
successive generation, down to the end of time. 



The following letter of regret from the fourteenth pastor was 
then read : — 

Braintree, Mass., Aug. 18, 1894, 
Kev. G. W. Stearns,— 

Dear Brother: Your note was duly received. I most heartily approve 
the growing custom of commemorating historic dates. It is especially 
fitting that the First Congregational Church in Middleboro, after two 
centuries of growth and usefulness, review and remember all the way in 
which the Lord has led them. I have delayed re^Dlying, not knowing 
just what my engagements might be. ... A certain work . . . will cut 
me oft from participation in your celebration. . . . May the day be 
favorable. . . . Accept for the church and yourself the congratulations 
of myself and family. Very truly yours, 

JOSIAH AVEAKE KINGSBURY. 



The thirteenth pastor. Rev. Howard A. Hanaford, of Win- 
chester, N. H., was then introduced. 



40 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 



ADDRESS OF REV. H. A. HANAFORD 
Beloved Friends of the First Church, and citizens of Middlehoro : 

I am filled with unaffected and inexpressible pride and 
pleasure in being accorded the privilege of celebrating, with 
this numerous and deeply interested assemblage, the two hun- 
dredth anniversary of your incorporation as a church of Jesus 
Christ, in accordance with the usages of the Pilgrim faith and 
polity. 

I remember passing well how, some six or seven brief years 
ago, I was wont to think : should I remain here sufficiently 
long, I shall. Providence being propitious, enjoy the pleasure 
of joining in and superintending, very possibly, the bi-centen- 
nial anniversary of this venerable and venerated church. It 
was not so written. 

A bird of passage, I came, enjoyed, wrought, and vanished 
from the scene in the short space of thirty-three months ; but 
those years were filled with never-to-be-forgotten experiences, 
sunny days, sweet and somber hours; bridals and burials, 
worship and the preaching of the Word, in this spacious and 
time-honored temple, — in a word, years of peace and joy, of 
usefulness and unselfish toil, I trust, in the grandest work 
given mortal man to do on these shores of time ; a work that 
seraphs may not essay, and that employed an omnipotent 
Redeemer's hands and heart. 

Never while memory holds her seat shall I forget the yeai"s 
spent in this dear Old Colony and in association with this 
Christian community. My friends were scattered through the 
hamlets of this widely scattered parish, this parish of magnifi- 
cent distances, but were not a meager band in yonder beautiful 
and flourishing village, known in Middleboro parlance as " the 
Corners." Nor were my dearly cherished parishioners my 
exclusive friends, since among the various Christian sects of 
Middleboro's chief village I counted many most valued friends 



MR. hanaford's address 41 

and helpers. The uniform courtesy and kindness of Rev. 
Messrs. Grant, MacBurney, Hyde, and Bowen I beg leave to 
thankfully recognize at this hour, while calling to mind the 
delightful hours of social intercourse enjoyed with those Chris- 
tian brethren, their families and people. 

The period in my career enclosed between the dates 1885 
and 1888 I am in the habit of designating the happiest in my 
ministerial course. Coming to Middleboro at thirty-four, I had 
been the pastor or acting pastor of several Christian societies ; 
hence was no novice in Christian activities, having begun my 
pulilic life at the early age of twenty-one years and six months, 
assuming then my first acting pastorate. 

In an incredibly brief time, friendships were formed here- 
about and associations created which have bound this church to 
my heartstrings, as none other has ever been linked, and 
to my latest day this side the gates of light shall I remember, 
with affectionate and ardent devotion, this beloved people, alike 
in the Church l^elow and the Church triumphant in the skies ; for 
as Wordsworth causes his wee maiden to sing of her little 
V)rothers here and there, " We are seven," so let us, beloved fel- 
low men and women, say of our achieving and our ascended 
brothers, they are ours, not ivere alone, for not long parted 
shall we be, and evermore is it grandly true that 

" The Church ou earth aucl that iu heaven 
But one commuuion make." 

We are one ! 

" For us the elder brethren stay ! " 

Ah, yes, thou sainted Wesley ! 

They are waiting for us, and soon the eternal gates will be 
lifted high, and we shall enter gladly upon the rest that re- 
maineth, and be forever with the Lord and the fathers and 
mothers of our Israel. 

Secretary Lamar, once at a Northern summer resort, was 
suddenly surprised by a half-known lady acquaintance, who 
rallied him on his not wholly concealed liewilderment by say- 



42 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

ing, " I fear that you hardly reDieml)er me, liut ^ye met two 
seasons ago at this veiy hotel." " Ah, madam," said the coiirtl}' 
diplomatic scion of Southern chivalry, " I have been striving 
for two years to forget you." My friends, that was idle, ful- 
some, conscienceless flattery ; but though for six years I have 
shared the joys and sorrows of another parish, and though they 
have done their very l^est to make me forget my earlier friends 
and supporters in this dear town, at old Bedford, and my 
native Nantucket, I can, notwithstanding, say in this presence, 
what I have said unconstrained by circumstances like the pres- 
ent, that I never, before or since, have felt so deeply attached 
to a place and people as to this old church of Middlel)oro. 

The years of my ministry here constitute a red-letter period 
in my life. There were reasons which I may not recount, and 
circumstances and occurrences which only I and mine can fully 
appreciate, which made my ministry here at Putnam's a pecu- 
liarly romantic episode in my life. But enough. 

We are met to call to mind, in vivid fashion by song and 
speech, that this church of our love and pride and pardonable 
vaunting (for we New Englanders are a boasting company) is 
two centuries old. Old, did I say? I should better have said 
two hundred years young. Yet, antiquity is highly in honor. 

I come from a church which is just forty years younger than 
this ancient organization in whose interest we are met. 

At the date of the publication of the Historical Account of the 
First Church in Middleboro, 1854, your church w\as just where 
in age my present church, near the storied Connecticut and 
amid the granite hills of the State of Stark and Hale and 
Webster, is in this year of grace, 1894. Now, if we can 
boast of antiquity up there, as we do, how much more loudly 
you can speak the praises of a church that dates back to a 
period when a child l)orn at Plymouth at the time of " the land- 
ing," or soon after, would have been but a little over three 
score years and ten ! 

Why, the men and women who started this venerable Chris- 
tian organization may some of them have looked into the faces 



MR. haxafoed's address 43 

of the sagacious Bradford and the redoiil)tal>le Captain Miles 
Standish, and have remembered easily or hazily the tine fort-like 
church on the hill at Plymouth, with its cannon-mounted roof 
overlooking the l)ay, where once the " Mayflower " lay at anchor, 
and the somljer forests where the wily savage lurked, and 
beasts as fierce as he. 

What an old, old church you are ! The word "old " is some- 
times used invidiously, l)ut it is sometimes employed most re- 
spectfully and tenderly, too. And thus we use it now. Others 
may mention the fact, l)ut I will venture the assertion : there are 
thirty-one churches older in the Bay State, and five Inmdred and 
forty-seven younger than your own, — our own, may I not say? 

The roll of churches in this portion of our State older than ours 
is as follows, with date of the organization of each : Old South, 
or Third church of Boston, 1669; Charlestown, 1632; Ded- 
ham, 1638 ; Edgartown, 1632 ; Newton Center, 1664 ; Sand- 
wich, 1638 ; Scituate, 1639 ; Marshfield, 1632 ; West Taunton, 
1634; Wrentham, 1692; and Yarmouth, 1639. 

These, with West Barnstable, 1616, formed in another land 
before embarking for these shores, form the elder sisters, in 
southeastern Massachusetts, of this church. 

There are a few churches in Essex and Middlesex counties, 
and a sprinkling in central and western Massachusetts, which 
antedate our church by from thirty to forty years, but in a 
total aggregation of 579 churches, only 31 are older than this 
church. 

Our sister church at Acushnet is two years younger, and the 
church at Plympton one year younger, than our own. 

Of course, the list of the ancient churches of old Massachu- 
setts and of the old Colony could be doubled, at least, if we 
might technically include the First and Second churches of 
Boston, the First churches of Salem, Plymouth, Beverly, 
Hiugham, with a score of others, perhaps, which are now 
known as Unitarian societies, though of course originally 
evangelical Congregational churches. 

I have spoken of the ancient character of this church. Age 



44 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

is not always venerable or worthy. Gray hairs are not always 
to be venerated, nor the hoary head a crown of glory. Still, 
" that which is true, as God lives, is permanent. " 

That which is worthful, beloved, survives, is permanent and 
long-lasting. Age that is not premature, and in appear- 
ance only, and " age that carries not with it the sting of out- 
raged honor," the legacy of a disgraceful and dishonored past ; 
age that is sweet and gracious, mellow and hopeful, freighted 
with holy memories and consoling and heavenly hopes ; age 
that has served and wrought zealously, and now rests and 
waits, though serving still, is a thing of beauty and a joy 
forever. The dear old saints, how we love and dote upon 
them, as they fade from view and lie down to their long sleep ! 
And the dear old churches, we do well to speak them fair ; 
for theirs is a noble record of three, live, eight or more genera- 
rations, taught, quickened, consoled, uplifted by worship and 
the Word ; of innumerable souls redeemed, justilied, sanctified, 
renewed ; of thousands of men and women brought from 
nature's darkness into the light of God's reconciled face, and 
the " white beauty of a saved and saintly life." 

The beauteous and (may I not say?) sublime record of 
this church of yours is not unknown or unwritten here on 
earth, but it is brightly and indelibly inscribed in the Lamb's 
fair book of life. 

Ah, who can compute, weigh, or duly estimate the magni- 
tude and value of the blessing and beatitude which have come 
to this community by means of the planting of this church and 
her beautiful l)evy of estimable daughters in this delightful 
countryside ? 

Truly we may say of our mother church, she has sent forth 
her boughs unto the sea and her branches unto the river. 

Rich beyond words, in blessing, this church has nourished in 
lioly and scriptural living eight generations of men and women, 
fashioned in the image of the Invisible. And the worth of 
such an engine or mighty agent of Ijenediction, of moral and 
spiritual quickening, is simply inexpressible. 



MR. hanaford's address 45 

This church has had, pre-eminenth', four cardinal constitu- 
ents of a true, model, and ideal church : stability, progress, 
ideal, and ritual. The stability of the church has been due, 
under the blessing of God, to the faithful ministries of the 
learned and devoted men who have never failed in declaring 
the unadulterated gospel of Jesus Christ, having so gently 
and wisely, eloquently and honorabl}^ preached the Word that 
all harmful schisms and heresies were avoided, and the church 
was enabled to pursue the tenor of its way unmolested hy 
Socinian schismatics or hypercalvinistic zealots. Sound alike 
in the days of eighteenth century formalism and nineteenth 
century heterodoxy of thought, this church has enjoyed a 
remarkable staljility. 

Truly conservative, she has welcomed new ideas and methods, 
while not wholly losing her hold upon the ancient landmarks and 
time-honored truths and usages of the Pilgrim churches of Britain 
and New England. With the great author (under the Finisher 
of Faith) of Congregationalism, John Robinson, this church, 
like him, has ever believed that God has yet more light to 
break forth for us from his most holy Word ; so has welcomed 
to its arms the revivalism of a Thacher and AMiitefield, and the 
earnest evangelism of a Sawyer, in modern times, as well as the 
tender, persuasive, tranquil, earnest, paternal ministry of a 
Putnam and a Conant. This church has been progi'essive, 
never retrogressive, and though highly conservative, as rural 
parishes are likely to be, has always followed in the path of 
the car of progress. If she has not led she has sedately and 
with calm eagerness followed the leadings of Providence in all 
her varied fortunes and vicissitudes. 

A grand and gracious ideal, based upon the ideas of the 
Fathers of the New England faith and polity, has l)een yours ; 
for have you not ever sought to be a true church of Jesus, a 
light in this dark world, a helping hand outstretched, hold- 
ing forth the word of life ? 

Then, too (for I must not enlarge), you have had a simple 
ritual, having hy no means neglected the form of sound words. 



46 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBOEO 

but growing into an increasing appreciation of the value of 
set forms of worship, and religious song and anthems, in aid- 
ing to enforce noble truths and cheer and uplift the hearts of 
dying, needy men. 

To which I should add, as the complement and crown of the 
whole, that Ijond of heavenly charity which pervades and har- 
monizes all, that supreme grace of the Christian dispensation, 
— love, manifest in works of social reform, in ministrations 
to the poor and suffering, in health to the sick, and light to 
them that sit in darkness, and the opening of the prison-house 
to them that are bound. 

According to the creed of the Apostolic Fathers, you have 
l)elieved in the Holy Catholic Church and have been one in 
miniature. Every Pilgrim church is. Not that which consists 
in masses and indulgences, in genuflexions and papal infalli- 
bility, but that which consists in faith and progress, devotion, 
love. In the work of soul-winning and character-building, in 
the work of iitting and preparing stones which shall be incor- 
porated one day in the shining, majestic temple of God in the 
heavenly places, those servants of the great Master Builder who 
wrought and worshiped here these twenty decades, here almost 
within hearing of the " breaking waves " that lave the beach 
at Plymouth, rejoiced to spend their uneventful days — days 
not without their usefulness, not without honor, profit, and 
beatitude. Peace was theirs ; joy inexpressible and full of 
glory. My bosom burns, my heart thrills, as I ponder the 
days of yore ; as I call to recollection the fathers and their 
lot, their trials, their tears, their treasured hopes, their 
loyalty to God, to conscience, and their duty as God gave 
them to see it. 

I think of those children of the Puritan age and movement, 
of those men of iron, of heroic and saintly stock, soldiers, 
saints, martyrs, and apostles of righteousness, who planted 
here the public school and the Christian church. Our fathers 
believed with all their heart in the book of God, in the voice of 
God, in the day of God, in the church and the house of God. 



3IR. haxaford's address 47 

Your ancestors followed in their shinino- footprints. Eobin- 
son and Brewster were followed l\y the Mathers, the Fullers, 
the Thachers, the Putnams of our later day ; a noble army of 
confessors. You of the generations now before me are, I trust 
and am happy to believe, worthy successors of most worthy and 
admirable sires. I congratulate you most heartily on your 
heritage, and I pray God that you may remain, for a score of 
decades yet to come (I speak of our institution now), what I 
found you, a most heterogeneous yet homogeneous and harmo- 
nious people, loyal to leader, faithful and efficient in labors ; a 
rare people, adhering unflinchingly to the faith of Christian 
orthodoxy, and intent upon the glory of Christ, whose you are 
and whom you serve. 

I dream, and lo ! there passes before my view a reverend 
procession of weak and erring yet godly and soul-seekinp- 
men. At the head of the little group I note a goodly form, 
with the attire of the seventeenth century Puritan. It is Sam- 
uel Fuller, the first pastor of this church. His eye is glad 
and bright, and he walks with measured tread, as if to the 
music of the heavenly choirs, and his hand points upward. 
He is followed by one whose glance falls often to the earth, and 
whose step seems to falter, while he walks a little aside from 
the others, who are trooping by, as if ashamed or afraid of 
joining in this company, but at last he passes nearer his pred- 
ecessor, and with head bowed low presses on. He seems to 
whisper, " Saved, yet so as hy fire," and I seem to see, as 
through a haze, a crown upon his brow, but there are no 
jewels there, and I think I hear him weeping, as he cries, 
" Not one soul with which to greet Him ; I kiss the feet of Re- 
deeming Grace, but O, my wasted life, my lost opportunity I " 
He passes on and is lost to view, and then follows the godly, 
industrious Thacher, with crown studded thickly with stars and 
glittering jewels, and after him the lovely and useful Conant, 
and the scholarly, able and efficient Barker. 

After him, with jeweled crowns, come the saintly Paine and 
the faithful Eaton. Then comes an alert and erect but lithe 



48 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

form, with beaming eye and rapid step ; it is the gentle, urbane, 
and admirable Father Putnam. His crown has many stars, and 
his brow shines with a mellow radiance, as he glides quickly 
forward in the glittering train. But who is this that sturdily 
presses after? It is Sawyer, the reaper; and I soon hear sower 
and reaper rejoicing together over a multitude of gathered 
sheaves. 

This man of God, pastor and evangelist, on whom many 
souls among us look back as to their deliverer, is followed I)}- 
two more saintly and faithful winners of souls, and as they 
sweep onward I hear them shouting to their noble predecessors, 
" My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horse- 
men thereof ! Lo, we come, we come ! " 

And as the little throng press skyward, I hear (nor is it all 
a dream) a host of angelic voices chanting, " The}' that l)e wise 
shall shine as the l^rightness of the firmament ; and the}' that 
turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever." 

" ' T is finislied ; all is flnished, — 
Their fight with death and siu ; 
Fling open -wide the golden gates, 
And let the victors in ! '" 

Be it ours, brethren of the ministry, and yours, nn^ pred- 
ecessor and successor, to follow in their train. Be it our happy 
privilege to receive with devoutest gratitude the legacy of faith, 
love, and unselfish devotion to us by them transmitted, and 
labor to assert and develop the principles by which they nobly 
wrought, and from which they received strength to live sub- 
limely, and die in the triumphs of faith. 

I have seen a book whose title is, " A Century of Dishonor." 
We come together to-day to celebrate two centuries of honor ; 
of honorable history ; of useful, noble toils ; of gracious achieve- 
ments and soul-uplifting hopes ; of hopes, clasping which the 
workers have been cheered and spurred on to fresh undertak- 
ings for Christ and his Church, and the d^-ing have descended 
into the dark-bright vale of death's latest shadow, leaning on 
the arm of their l^eloved Shepherd, whose word to us is not 



MR. hanaford's address 49 

alone, '' Feed my sheep ; tend my lambs," but, " Be ye faith- 
ful unto death, and when I, the chief Shepherd, shall appear, 
I Avill give ye a crown of glory which fadeth not away ! " 
Cherishing most ardently, and rejoicing heartily in your two 
centuries of traditions, trials, triumphs, go on, my brethren, 
pastor Stearns and people, and make the living present worthy 
of the glorious past. The past, certainly, is secure. The 
present we note, and are glad to honor. The future is in 
your hands, to mold and fashion it how you will. 

When your church was born (comparatively speaking), 
science and theology were in swaddling-lmnds, in their infancy. 
Amazing changes have taken place in two hundred years. 
Weeks and months and years, generations and epochs have 
rolled away. Science is a new creature, as vastly different 
from what it was in the seventeenth century, theoretically and 
practically, as the Cathedral of St. Paul's is different from the 
barn-like structures which served our fathers as churches. 

In the realm of religious progress what has God wrought I 
Never l^efore was the Bil)le the Ijook it is to-day. Never were 
its treasures so highly prized. Never were its depths and 
bights so thoroughly explored. Never l)efore was evangelical 
Christianity so puissant, so invincible. 

AVhen this church was organized, only thirty-four years, 
perhaps, had passed since the great plague in London ; John 
Bunyan had been dead but a few 3'ears, while Shakspere was 
ahiiost as near to the founders of this church in time as Wesley 
is to us. Milton's "Paradise Lost" is just issued from the 
press, mayhap. Some thirty-eight years must roll along 
])efore the " Father of his Country " will see the lioht. John- 
son and Goldsmith and Edmund Burke, the great poets and 
statesmen of the eighteenth century, have not yet been ])orn. 
One hundred and forty years nuist roll away before steam-cars 
Avill be in fashion ; and one hundred and seventy-live or more 
before the wonders of the telegraph, the phonograph, and the 
electric light and railway will dawn upon a not very greatly 
astonished world. 



50 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

Philosophies and literatures have suffered change. Inter- 
pretations of Scripture have been moditied. Science has 
ceased to be a pigmy, and is now a sturdy colossus, striding 
across a narrow world. We no longer say in our credo that 
the Lord made the world in six days of twelve or twenty-four 
hours each, but Ave say the universe was "evolved," though in 
the beginnino; God created the heaven and the earth. 

But in all and through all God works and rules, and well 
may we sing with Tennyson, 

" Our little sj'stems have their clay; 
They have their clay aud cease to be." 

Yet our God changes not, and truth changes not. We move 
nervously from side to side, to and fro, and see truth from 
different sides, but she remains the same yesterday, to-day, and 
forever. Remembering Jefferson's aphorism, "We are respon- 
sible to God, not for the rightness, but for the uprightness 
of our opinions," let us search, nevertheless, for truth as for 
hidden pearls, for if we seek for her with all our hearts she 
will be found of us. 

With one fond look backward I will close these somewhat 
extended observations. My thought carries me back to the 
gorgeous October days of 1885. I am standing where I stand 
to-night, and looking down or up into — not a sea of faces, but 
a scattered throng of humble worshipers. There were a 
goodly numl)er of persons here that day whom we miss to-night. 
I cannot speak their names, l)ut there were Eddys and Pratts, 
there were Thomases and Thompsons, Woods and Bryants, 
there were Westons, and many others of fragrant memory. As 
I recal their names, and their faces rise before me, I seem to 
hear the words of the Cambridge poet : — 

" Theu, though oft deprest aud lonely, 
All my fears are laid aside, 
If I but remember, only, 

Such as these have lived and died." 



MR. hanaford's address 51 

Surviving- friends, who still hold a lofty place on memory's 
walls, I call you to emulate the virtues of those who, lieins: 
dead, yet speak. I summon you so to set your house in order 
that when Life's dream is exchanged for Eternity's reality, 
and the little tale of earthly years is all told, we may meet 
the saintly souls who beckon to us from the islands of the 
blessed, saying, "Come up higher!" Till then, let us follow 
Christ as did they. Let us never forsake the Pilgrim faith, 
the Trinity, and the cross of Jesus Christ, l)ut, clinging fast to 
the glorious doctrines of the reformed churches, let us enter 
upon our third century as a church with bright hopes and flam- 
ing zeal. Let the aged say, " The past was grand and sweet. 
The future we will leave Avith God, in the trustful assurance that 
God's spirit will guide his church in days to come as of yore." 
Let the young face futurity with strong hopes and brave re- 
solve. Let all renew, or record, their vows to live "out and 
out" for God. So shall you honor the memory of your illus- 
trious predecessors, perpetuate the venerable institution ])e- 
queathed to you by them, and set forward the common King- 
dom of our Savior Christ. 

A word last of all to the religiously irresolute or the un- 
saved in this great audience. I want to say to each one of you, 
"as a dying man to dying men," the Master has need of you. 
This church has need of you. Stand not upon the order of 
your going, but go at once to the fountain of cleansing, the 
waters of Siloa that go softly. What Napoleon said to his 
soldiers at the pyramids, that, slightly changed, I may say 
to you : Eight generations look down upon you. See that 
through you the Kingdom of God receive no detriment. Seek 
your souls' salvation. Seek then to be polished stones in the 
temple of life, granite, not soapstone or shale. Take sides 
with the Spirit against the flesh. Receive the death of Christ 
for the remission and putting away of your sins, and the pure, 
lovely, loving life of Christ to help you overcome the power 
of sin. Then shall you be laureled conquerors, and more than 
conquerors, when from the bleeding and kingly hands of the 



52 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

Captain of salvation you receive a crown of righteousness, and 
enter the ^ates of light, where the saints await our coming. 



At the conclusion of Mr. Hauaford's address the choir sang 
an old fugue-tune, " The New Jerusalem " (Ingalls) ; the con- 
gregation united in the hymn, "In the Cross of Christ I 
glory" (Boivring ), to the tune "Rathbun"; the benediction 
was pronounced by Rev. N. T. Dyer, and the congregation 
was dismissed with an organ postlude, " Sanctus," from Farm- 
er's Mass in B flat. 



''THE PILGRIM MOTHERS" 53 



MONDAY, AUGUST 27, 1894 

On Monday, at two o'clock, a goodly throng met in the 
meeting-house. The organist. Miss Wood, rendered Scotson 
Clark's"" Grand Offertoire in G." 

The pastor, having been asked to preside, introduced Rev. 
B. F. Hamilton, D. D., of Eoxbury, who is connected by 
marriage with the First Church. Dr. Hamilton read from 
Psalm 90, and offered prayer. 

Mrs. G. W. Stearns then read the following ode, composed 
for the occasion by the pastor : — 

THE PILGRIM MOTHERS 

Out of the storied past, 

Like pictures down from their frames, 
Methinlis I see the mothers come 

Who bore the Pilgrim names. 

Mothers and maidens too, 

Tho' little they asked of fame, 
Were equally brave with our honored sires ; 

Be then their praise the same. 

Think ye they loved not home 

Because they sailed over the sea? 
Think ye they yearned to roam. 

Crusaders gay to be? 

Speak, from the *♦ Mayflower's " deck, 

O damsel with brimming eyes — 
Fared ye o'er the unfriendly deep 

To find where fortune lies? 

What means that stifled sigh, 

O matron in Plymouth's home? 
Have ye not lotus found at last, 

O'er leagues of ocean foam? 

Think'st thou amid her toils 

Dreams not thy daughter more 
Than she e'er confest of some English nest 

With hawthorn at its door? 



54 riEST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

O, how they missed the kin 
They had left beyond the main, 

The Avhile they struggled with hardships sore, 
Famine and toil and pain ! 

Many a dear one drooped. 
To rest in an unmarked grave. 

But the living had need of comfort and care, 
And Avomen must be brave. 

Many a cottage wall 

In an Old Colony town 
Could tell a tale of gentle hearts 

That ached, but kept grief down. 

Sweet words of love and faith, 

To husband, brother, child, 
Cheered these to act a valiant part, 

Their fears and doubts beguiled. 

Let laurel grace man's brow ; 

Grant him his meed of praise ; 
The deeds of our Pilgrim sires may well 

Inspire the poet's lays. 

Robinson, Fuller, White, 
And others are honored names ; 

But the angels have sung what earth has not - 
The praise of the Pilgrim dames. 

Peal, then, thou sweet-voiced bell ! 

Answer, ye whispering pines ! 
Proclaim that bright as the father's the fame 

Of the Pilgrim mother shines. 



The choir next sang a hymn, "Two Hundred Years Ago," 
adapted from Joseph Flint, with music by Bartholomew Brown. 
This hymn was first sung at a celebration in Plymouth, in 1820. 




JJk 



(yvy\ <^x_^ 



^ t^yh 



m/( 



ORATION BY TH03IAS WESTON 55 

The President of the Day. — It is well known to all of 
you who are thronged in this meeting-house to share to-day in 
celebrating our two hundredth l)ii'thday, that our long meml>er- 
ship list includes not a few persons who have won for them- 
selves and for us an envialjle renown. Some of these persons 
have ere this been numbered with the saints in glory everlast- 
ing. Many of their descendants are with us to-day. There is 
one whose father was for more than threescore years an active 
member of our church, and his ancestors for four generations 
previous to his own were influential members and constant 
attendants on its worship, serving the Master. He united with 
us at the age of eighteen years, and, though elsewhere resident, 
worthily sustains the name of his illustrious ancestors. I have 
the honor to present one already known by most of you, the 
orator of the day, Mr. Thomas AVeston, of Boston. 



ORATION 

BY THOMAS WESTON 

" Thou shalt remember the way the Lord thy God has led 
thee these forty years." So begins the earliest record of the or- 
ganization of this church, whose two hundredth anniversary we 
commemorate to-day. One hundred years ago, the eminent pas- 
tor of this church, theEev. Joseph Barker, embodied the prom- 
inent events in its formation in a century sermon preached 
from the church edifice then standing upon yonder foundation. 
Fifty years later in this pulpit. Rev. Dr. Putnam, of blessed 
memory, gathered the most interesting events connected with 
its history, together with some account of the lives and char- 
acters of its successive pastors and prominent members, in 
two exhaustive sermons, which were published in the volume 
containing your church history.^ The revival of historical 

' Book of the First Church of Christ in MidcUeboro, 1852. This volume 
■\vas written by Zechariah Eddy, one of the ablest lawyers in southeastern 
Massachusetts. He was recognized as authority on all matters relating to 
the Pilgrims and the history and polity of the Congregational churches. 



56 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

studies in our own time has added but little else to our 
knowledge of the early history of this ancient and honored 
church. 

We have come together, brethren and friends, not so much 
for the purpose of bringing additional facts to our knowledge 
in its interesting history, but, in the words of its founders, 
to remember the way that the Lord our God led them and 
has led us, their successors in the work of their hands, 
during these two hundred years. Here in this meeting-house, 
and the others that preceded it, the members of this church 
have come for more than seven generations to worship. Here 
they made " the wilderness and the solitary place to be glad 
for them, and the desert to rejoice and blossom as the rose " ; 
here for generations they came for that spiritual culture and 
growth that made them the strong men and women they w^ere ; 
here they found consolation in the privations, the sufferings, 
and the sorrows they underwent ; here they olitained that 
fortitude and courage by which they so successfully met the 
responsibilities of those early days and years of hardship and 
trial ; here were developed those lives of Christian faith and 
holy living the memory of which has for so many genera- 
tions been such a l)enediction upon the lives of their chil- 
dren ; here were molded and developed those characters which 
made our fathers men of enterprise, of perseverance, of in- 
tegrity, — the ideal representatives of our heroic age; and 
here, too, they came and went out, one after another, each suc- 
cessively in his turn coming to his grave " like as a shock of 
corn cometh in in his season." It is for us to-day, as we re- 
view the scenes and the traditions connected with these men, 
not only to catch, if we ma}^ some inspiration from their 
lives and their characters, a stronger love and trust in the God 
that they so loved and trusted, that our lives may l)e nol)ler 
and sweeter to meet the great responsibilities of our day and 
generation, l)ut also to see how the story of this church and 
the lives of its members have flowed into the great stream of 
the histor}' of the nation. 



ORATION BY THOMAS WESTON 57 

As its life passes l:»efore us in review, we may possibly regret 
that its earliest records are lost and its later ones are so meager, 
and yet the records of such a church, of such ministers, of such 
members, are never lost ; they are engraven upon successive 
generations of men and women, whose influence is felt, not only 
in the life of such a church as this, but in the life of the nation 
as they have hoth grown from infancy to maturity, and must 
•continue to the end of time, only to he fully known when the 
great l)ooks are opened on high. 

The times were auspicious for its organization. Although 
remote from the centers of the old and new world, its founders 
were, for the most part, men keenly alive to the great prol^lems 
of church and state that were then being adjusted. 

William and JNIary were on the throne of England ; the gen- 
tle and beloved queen passed away two days after our church 
was organized. The Commoners of England had secured for 
the people the guarantees contained in that innnortal state 
paper, the Bill of Rights. Freedom of the press was al)out to 
l)e established. An enactment l^y Parliament granting a larger 
measure of protection and freedom than was ever before granted 
to Protestants had been passed ; the great Marlborough, who 
never lost a battle for England, and who had been honored as 
no other subject had lieen honored, was in disgrace for the 
most perfidious treason ; the genius of Addison was just begin- 
ning to be recognized ; the marvelous creations of Sir Chris- 
topher Wren had already begun to beautify the great city of 
London ; Sir Isaac Newton had pointed out great laws which 
•control the universe ; in France the Edict of Nantes had been 
revoked with terrible results, and the blood of thousands of 
Protestants was flowing in the streets of the cities of France, 
and the world was still learning that there were men whose 
faith in their God was more precious to them than life itself. 

In the colonies, our own Plymouth Colony had just united 
her fortunes with those of the Bay. The anxieties concerning 
the new charter had now l)een settled. The Colony of the Bay 
was just recoverino- from that tevrilile delusion of witchcraft 



58 FIRST CHURCH, 3IIDl)LEBORO 

which had so disgraced the annals of her history, but which,, 
happily, never extended to our own Plymouth Colony. 

The last survivor of the Pilgrims of the " MayiioAver," John 
Alden, had passed away eight years before ; the horrors of 
the Indian War had ceased ; our ancestors had returned from 
Plymouth, whither they had fled for protection and safety dur- 
ing the war, and had now rebuilt their houses and barns and 
redeemed their long-neglected farms. Their numbers, also, 
were l^eginning to I)e augmented by the recent arrivals in the 
colony from the mother country. 

Our town was so named l)ecause within its territory centered 
most of the Indian paths that traversed the southeastern section 
of New England, and from its being midway from Plymouth 
and the important settlement of Taunton. It was settled later 
than most of the toAvns in the colony, on account of the much 
larger number of Indians that continued to live within its 
border after they had retired from most of the other section* 
of southeastern Massachusetts, and who remained here until 
after King Philip's War. 

There is a tradition, probably true, that the two men who 
first built houses here bore the historic names of Wood and 
Leonard. The former was situated between the house of Mrs. 
Lorenzo Wood and the river, the latter on the high ground on 
the other side of the street in front of the house of Mr. Perry 
Wilbur. From their homes could be seen the wigwams of the 
Indian settlement on the hill on the other side of the Namasket, 
and beyond their ancient burial ground. In what year they 
came or how long they remained is a matter of doubt. 

Our town was incorporated in the year 16G9. At the break- 
ing out of King Philip's War there were here sixteen families, 
who, upon its commencement, removed to Plymouth. 

The eleven men who organized our church were most of them 
elderly men and children of the Pilgrims of Plymouth, who 
came from that town and settled within our borders probably 
a little before or a little after the year 1660. Eight of them 
were among the twenty-six men who made the purchase of 



ORATION BY THOMAS AVESTON 59" 

much of the territory of our town from the Indians in 1664. 
Nine, with their wives, removed their relations from the parent 
church in Pl^-mouth, and the remainder united by profession of 
their faith upon the organization of the church. I am inclined 
to think that most of them were here before the town was incor- 
porated and probaljly some time Ijefore the " twenty-six men's 
purchase." Although this church was not organized until Dec. 
26, 1694, I have no doubt that religious services had been held 
within the limits of the town by its first settlers for at least 
forty years before its organization. The opening sentence of 
their earliest records that have come down to us is significant. 
The men of that generation were not only familiar with the 
Scriptures, ])ut they always used its quotations with truth and 
accuracy, and it is hardly probable that they would have used 
the words, " Thou shalt remember the way the Lord thy God has 
led thee these forty years," upon such a solemn occasion had 
they not been strictly true. Mr. Baylies, in his admirable his- 
tory of Plymouth Colony, gives as a reason of their delay in 
organizing their church that they were too poor to warrant a 
stated ministry until this time. 

The church was organized Dec. 26, 1694, by these men and 
women in accordance with the simple forms of the church of 
the Pilgrims — tirst gathered in Elder Brewster's manor house 
in Scrooby, and afterwards removed to Leyden, and from there 
to Plymouth — and which have continued in our denomination 
to the present time. Letters missive were sent to the neighbor- 
ing churches of Plymouth, Sandwich, and Barnstable, which 
were represented by their respective pastois and deleo-ates. 
They met, in all prolial)ility, in the old church edihce that stood 
somewhere between the residence which was formerly known as 
"Dr. Sturtevant's " and the Green. After the same simple ser- 
vices which are now ol)served in the organization of a church, 
the Rev. Samuel Fuller was ordained their pastor and religious 
teacher. They then adopted the Articles of Faith, substantially 
the same as they now exist in your church, and entered into 
solemn covenant with their God and with each other for the 



60 FIRST CHURCH, MIDULEBORO 

faithful performance of the sacred vows that they then unitedly 
took upon themselves. After that their infant children were 
baptized, and John Bennet was chosen deacon and ordained 
and inducted into his office. 

The church they thus organized was built upon what they 
sincerely believed to be the testimony of the Prophets and 
the Apostles, Jesus Christ being the chief corner-stone. Their 
articles of faith and covenant were for the pilrpose of setting 
forth a common belief in which all members could unite and 
heartily agree, and for every member to consent to the rules 
and discipline therein set forth. They contained the essential 
doctrines of the Holy Scriptures, which they believed to be the 
only rule of faith and practice. They believed in self-govern- 
ment and open communion of the church, in its free toleration, 
with power to select their own pastors and officers, to receive, 
dismiss, and excommunicate members liy vote of the whole 
church and l)y advice of the neighboring churches in council 
whenever desired by either party. They held with rigid ten- 
acity to that system of theological thought called Calvinism, — 
drawn, as they believed, from the inspired Word, — which was 
the corner-stone of the Puritan faith. That system of thought 
has always inspired its followers with a sense of their own 
independence and dignity as beings called of God into his own 
kingdom and glory and redeemed l)y the incarnation and sac- 
rifice of the Son of God. It asserted the rights of humanity 
and the equality of man before God and the law as no other 
system had. They, in common with the Congregational l)ody 
of that day and this, l)elieved strongly and tenaciously in a 
faith that put God first, the Commonwealth next, the citizen 
next ; and its followers have always endeavored to speak and 
act as they have professed. 

David Hume said that Enghmd owed all the liberty she had 
to the Puritans. George Bancroft says that the monarchs of 
Europe, with one consent and with incisive judgment, feared 
these doctrines as republican. That S3'stem of theological 
thought was Calvinism, of which John Fisk says that its "dis- 



ORATION BY THOMAS WESTON »ll 

semination over the world was one of the greatest steps that 
mankind had ever taken towards personal freedom." It was 
largely this mighty force in the thought of later times that 
achieved our independence. 

The churches of our denomination have always been tenacious 
of this faith, which, as they believe, was once delivered to the 
saints. Its members from the beginning have always been well 
versed in the teachings of the Scriptui'es. Its great doctrines 
were intelligently comprehended by a large majority of our 
churches and adhered to with tenacitv in the great theoloo;ical 
controversies of the generations which followed between the 
churches of the Pilgrim faith and that of the Arminians, now 
known as Unitarians. We of to-day have but little idea of the 
bitter feeling that that controversy engendered in New England, 
and how it took hold of the churches, dividino; some and chano-- 
ing the faith of others. One quarter of the Congregational 
churches of Massachusetts went over to the Unitarian belief, — 
nearly one hundred in all. Of the churches in Boston, all but 
one thus changed its faith ; so did the church of the Pilgrims at 
Plymouth, where William Brewster was its ruling elder, where 
Carver and Winslow, Bradford and Fuller and their children and 
grandchildren long worshiped ; so did the church at Bridge- 
water, Wareham, and Kingston, in Hingham, and in most of the 
other towns in the Old Colony. 

In all of that bitter controversy this church stood tirm from 
the beginning and remained then, as now, true to its ancient 
faith. It is, however, a fact in history that cannot be ignored 
that the churches of the Puritan faith largely furnished the men 
who were foremost in promulgating the broad ideas of liberty 
and resistance to the oppression of Old England, and who led 
and guided the War of Independence, and afterwards framed 
the government and laid the foundation of the institutions of 
our country. And while ignorant men may sneer at the Puri- 
tans, their customs, and their belief, the world appreciates 
to-day the value of the lives, the services, and the principles 
which actuated those noble men more than ever before. Our 



62 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

senior senator' in the United States Senate on a public occasion 
not long since, in referring to the forces that achieved our inde- 
pendence, said, with truth, that he did not believe that the 
American Revolution could ever have been successfully accom- 
plished and the government of the United States securely es- 
tablished without the preliminary educating power which had 
been given to the men of those times through the hard-headed 
orthodoxy which prevailed in New England. This was the 
faith of our fathers, and has continued the same during all of 
these successive generations. The day belongs to us, and it is 
not too much to say on an occasion like this that it is from our 
church and churches of our faith and order that largely have 
spiung the forces and influences that have molded the govern- 
ment and institutions of the land, and there are few churches 
in New England that contributed more of this mighty force 
in the infant days of the colony and nation than this ancient 
church. 

And yet this simple organization, this belief, these incidents, 
was not the church they founded. It was their conception of 
a plan for the commingling of spiritual aspirations for the service 
they desired to render to God and humanity ; the place where 
they could tind inward peace and growth for their immortal 
natures, here in this consecrated place, that was then and 
there made, and has so continued to be, the First Church in 
Middleboro. 

I should certainly fail in the discharge of the trust you have 
so kindly imposed upon me should I neglect to give in detail 
something of the lives and characters of the founders of this 
our ancient church. Although there is but little extant con- 
cerning them except tradition, I have gathered briefly of this 
what I have been able to find. 

There is nothing grander in any place or in any age than its 
strong, consecrated, devout Christian men. Men never stood 
out in a stronger light, having all of these attributes and more, 
than the noble souls whose lives we recal to-day. It is true 

' George F. Hoar. 



ORATION BY THOMAS WESTON 63 

that most in their lives is gone from us, but the occasion brings 
us where we may see something of the details of tliose lives as 
they were here lived, and what they did and what they accom- 
plished for future generations, and how they went out to their 
reward on high. 

The roll of the founders of this church we honor to-day is as 
follows : — 

Samuel Fuller and his wife. Samuel Cutbart. 

John Bennet and his wife. Jacoij Tomsox and his wife. 

Jonathax Morse and his wife. John Cob, Jr. 

Abiel Wood and liis wife. Hester Tixkiiam. 

Samuel Wood. Deborah Barden. 

Isaac Billington. Weibrah Bumpas. 

Samuel Eaton. EbenezerTinkham and his wife. 

The most, prominent of these men was their first pastor, the 
Rev. Samuel Fuller. He was the son of Samuel Fuller, of 
the " Mayflower," celebrated for his piety and skill as a physi- 
cian. So desirous was he that his son should he better fitted 
for a useful life that he made provision for his education in his 
last will and testament. Pie was born in l()2o, and received ;i 
good education. He was one of the twenty-six ])urchasers of 
the large tract of land covering much of the territory of the 
town, and came to dwell in our borders, I am inclined to 
think, before 1662. He served as deacon in the church at 
Plymouth for sixteen years in the early part of his life, and 
was the religious teacher of the inhabitants of the town from 
the time of his settling hei-e until his death. The town voted 
to provide a house and twelve acres of land for him as early as 
1680, which was located a little east of what was formerly the 
residence of Dr. Sturtevant. The same year the town voted 
him a yearly salary of twenty pounds, one quarter to be paid 
in silver and the remainder in corn and wheat, and also to fence 
his field ; and every person who failed to do his portion was to 
pay a bushel of corn. At the same time a house was built for 
him (which was Imrned with all other houses in town at the 
commencement of the Indian War), the site of which is not 



64 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

precisely known. During the war he removed to Plymouth 
with the other settlers, and there remained until its close, when 
he returned in 1080. 

I think it was during this year that the town Ijuilt our tirst 
meeting house, near the house of the late Dr. Sturtevant. 

In 1680 he was chosen one of the selectmen of the town. 
Tradition is uniform that he was not only an enterprising, in- 
telligent, industrious man, but an earnest, devout Christian 
teacher, who spent most of his life in preaching the gospel, 
although not an ordained minister until the year before his 
death. He was ordained at the time of the organization of the 
church, and died a few months after. A stone on the burial 
hill marks his resting-place and contains a suital)le inscription.' 

The Rev. Dr. Backus, writing in 1741, said that before King 
Philip's War in 1675 there were three churches of praying 
Indians in the territory included in the limits of our town — one 
at Namasket, another at Assawampset, and a third at Titicut — 
and that in these three churches there were one hundred and 
thirty members. The churches at Xamasket and Assawampset 
numl)ered seventy members. Such remarkable results at that 
time must have been largely due to the long, devout, and 
faithful Christian service on the part of this godly man, aided 
as he was by Rev. ]Mr. Treat, of Eastham (whose labors for 
the conversion of the Indians were not surpassed by the great 
apostle Eliot himself) , and the Christian associates of Mr. Ful- 
ler, who must have been very early in the town. It would 
certainly appear to be the fact that not only Mr. FuUer but 
the organizers of this church had been here for at least forty 
years to have seen such fruits of their faith and their works. 

Gov. Bradford, after the Pilgrims' tirst encounter with the 
hostile Indians at Plymouth, wrote home to his beloved pastor, 
the Rev. John Robinson, of the signal victory that they had 
obtained. In his answer to that letter, after tender and en- 
couraging words, he adds this sentence: "O, that you had 
converted some before you had killed any !" That rebuke 

' See page 96. 



OKATIOX BY THOMAS AVESTON 65 

could never have been administered to your ancestors, the 
founders of this church, for the record shows that before the 
o-un of John Tonison (borrowed by Lieut. Isaac HoAvland) 
had Ijeen tired from the garrison liouse of the town at the 
Indian on the high rock just above the Star ]Mills, while 
menacing the settlers who had there retired for safety, 
wounding him so that he soon after died in the house of Wil- 
liam Nelson, which stood not far from the house of the late 
Jacob Bennet, they had converted more than one hundred 
and thirty before they had killed one. 

Next to their minister, prolmbly Jacob To3ISON ^Aas the 
most influential and prominent of that little band. He united 
with the church upon profession of his faith at its organization. 
He was the son of John Tomson, a member of the church of 
Plymouth, and, with his children, was in the habit of attend- 
ing church there every Sabbath. There is a tradition that he 
when a boy, and in his early manhood, was in the habit of 
walking from his father's hou«e to Plymouth and l)ack every 
Sabbath to attend services, a distance of over sixteen miles. 
He was an industrious, enterprising man, honored and re- 
spected throughout the colony. He was one of the twenty-six 
men who made the first purchase from the Indians of the ter- 
ritory in this tow^n. He made the survey of the land so pur- 
chased, and divided it into lots among his associates. His 
father was certainly here before 1654, and there is every 
reason to believe that his son was with him during those early 
years. 

He was a large owner of real estate in this and the adjoining 
towns. He was one of the few of His Majesty's justices of the 
peace in the colony for many years ; was elected selectman of 
the town in 1697, and held that ofiice for twenty-five years. He 
was a representative to the General Court for the years 1708- 
18. He was a devout, earnest Christian man, of much influ- 
ence in this church and prominent in the affairs of the town 
and colony. 

Our first deacon was John Benxet, born about the year 



66 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

1642. He came from Beverly to our town, and died March 
21, 1718, aged seventy-six years. He was selectman for live 
years, and town clerk for thirteen years. He was a man of 
considerable learning, well versed in Scripture, and of sturdy 
character. He was of much assistance to the pastor of the 
church, and rendered great service in many ways to the church 
during its early years. He was a man of good judgment, 
discreet, and always zealous for the growth and prosperity of 
the church that he so long and faithfully served. 

Samuel Wood came from the church at Plymouth. He was 
a selectman in 1684, and was re-elected upon eight different 
occasions. He was also a man of prominence, and greatly 
respected. His descendants are very numerous in this and 
surrounding towns. Very many of them have been distin- 
guished in the professions, as well as in other of the varied 
occupations of life. He died in 1718, in the seventieth year 
of his age. 

Abiel Wood was probably a brother of Samuel. He was 
a quiet, industrious man, of strong religious convictions. His 
descendants were not numerous. He died in 1719, aged 
sixty-one. 

Ebenezer Tinkham united with the church on profession 
of his faith at its organization, and was one of the selectmen 
for three years. He was a man of great enterprise, and did 
much for the church and town. He died April 8, 1718, in the 
seventy-lifth year of his age. The enterprise of their ancestors 
has always been a characteristic of his posterity. 

Hester Tinkham was a sister of Ebenezer, and there is no 
record of her marriage. She died in 1717, at the age of sixty- 
eight. 

Samuel Eaton was a son of Francis and Sarah Eaton, pas- 
sengers in the "Mayflower." He was settled in Duxbury in the 
early part of his life, and removed from there to Middleboro 
probably before the twenty-six were purchasers, of whom he 
was one. He married jNlartha Billington, probal^ly a daughter 
of Isaac Billinirton, and died March 18, 1724, aged sixty-one 



ORATION BY THOMAS WESTON (37 

years. He was a member of the church in Duxbury Ijefore 
joining this church. 

Weibrah Bumpas was the wife of Joseph Bumpas. She died 
Dec. 27, 1711. Her husband was a son of Edvvard Bumpas, one 
of the passengers of the " Mayflower," and a brother of Edward, 
who was one of the twenty-six purchasers of territory from 
the Indians in 1GG4. She was formerly a member of the church 
at Plymouth, and severed her relations to join this church at its; 
organization. The descendants of Joseph and Edward were nu- 
merous in town at (uie time, and were industrious, thrifty men. 

Jonathan Morse owned a large tract of land in town, and 
was frugal and diligent. He was a member of the church in 
Plymouth, and severed his relations with that church to join 
this. Some of his descendants have been very prominent in 
the literary and scientific world. He died in 1709, aged 
seventy years. 

John Cob, Jr., was a son of one of the twenty-six pur- 
chasers of much of the territory of the town. His father was 
recorded as one of "the first-comers " in Plymouth. He was 
enterprising and thrifty. It was his custom, as well as that of 
most others in town before the organization of the church, to 
attend the customary service in the old church in Pl^^mouth, re- 
turning the same day. He died in 1727, aged sixty-eio-ht years. 

Samuel Cutbart left no descendants, and died in 1699 at 
the age of forty-two. No tradition has ever come down to us 
concerning him. 

But little is known of Isaac Billington. He left no male 
descendants, and died in 1709 at the age of sixty-six. 

Deborah Barden was connected with the family that has 
always been well known in town from its earliest organization. 

And so we have recorded the little that has come down to us 
of these illustrious names, the founders of the church whose 
history we rehearse to-day. Of most of them we may say, 

" Their name, their years, spelt by the unlettered muse. 
The place of fame and elegy supply." " 

' Gray's " Elegy." 



68 FIRST CHURCH, ZMIDDLEBORO 

It is enough then for us to say that they were devout Chris- 
tian men of sterling character, distinguished for their soljriety 
and industry, whose influence for good was long felt in this 
community. Tradition is uniform that the daily walk of these 
men and women was in accord with the solemn vows they took 
upon themselves on that memoral)le Sabbath of Dec. 26, 
1694.1 

It is not my purpose to trace the interesting story of this 
church from that day to this. It has been an eventful one. It 
has had its dissensions, but fewer than most churches of the 
Commonwealth. The differences between the old lights and 
the new lights were soon foroiven and forgotten. It has had 
its "toil and tribulation," but, 

" Glorious things of thee are spoken, 
Zion, city of our God," 

that have also been seen here. The years of 1728, 1741-2, 
1808, and 1823 were 

" Years of the right hand of the Most High " 

in this place. Nor does time permit me to name the men who 
have been prominent in its membership since its organization, 
or the part they have taken and the influence they have exerted 
in molding and shaping, not only the many interests of this 
church, but the affairs of the town, and not a few of them in 
the broader held of the colony, afterwards the Commonwealth. - 
The sacred Are on this altar, kindled two hundred years ago, 
has been kept burning l)y the children and children's children 
down to the seventh generation. 

No church is richer than ours in men and women whose 
lives have made the world wiser and better, and whose Chris- 

1 A brief slietch of the lives of some of the more prominent members of 
the church for the first one hundred years of its existence may be found in 
the history of the church. 

^ Of these, more thau a dozen have been ministers of the gospel, about the 
same number physicians and lawyers, and scores of them in every honorable 
trade and occupation scattered all over the country. 



ORATION BY THOMAS WESTON 69 

titm characters have lieeu radiant with the power of the endless 
life. 

We are upon historic ground to-day. From my boyhood 
there has always l^een a peculiar charm that has lingered about 
the sites of the houses of worship this church has successively 
occupied. I must linger for a few moments to recal some" of 
the associations connected with them ; we are fortunate in know- 
inji' the exact location of each of them. The first, staudino- 
l)etween the house of the late Dr. Sturtevant and the school- 
house on the Green, was the place where worshiped those 
godly men who, with their pastor, had been, under God, the 
instruments of converting the Indians who before the Indian 
War had been gathered into the three churches within the 
borders of our town as it then existed. These Indian churches 
l)ecame extinct with the lireaking out of the war, and most of 
the Indians joined the whites in that bloody contest ; after its 
close they removed to other parts of the State, or became so 
commingled with the settlers as to lose their identity. 

AVe may judge something of their identification with the 
interests of the people from the fact that of the seventy-five 
men the town furnished for wdiat was called Gov, Drummond's 
Indian War, from 1720 to 1725, one third were Indians, who 
cheerfully volunteered for that service, and who were good 
soldiers. 

The second church edifice stood in front of the school-house 
from the year 1707 to 1746, or thereabout. It was thirty-six 
by thirty-six feet in size, and sixteen feet high in the walls. 
It had two ridge poles and four gable ends. In 1745 the 
roof was taken off and a pitched roof put on. Here worshiped 
those devout women, Mesdames Thacher and Morton, whose 
names and memory have come down to us fragrant with all the 
charms and graces of Christian womanhood. Here, too, came 
Samuel Prince, Xathan Prince, Samuel Eddy, Nehemiah Ben- 
net, Ichabod Paddock, Isaac Fuller, Barzillai Thomas, — names 
historic in the annals of this church, this town, the colony. 

This was the place in which Luke Short, when nearly one 



70 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

hundred years of age, stood before the great congregation and 
publicly confessed his sins and took upon himself the solemn 
voAvs of your church. 

The story of his interesting conversion is fresh in the minds 
of you all. He was a member of Cromwell's train band ; was 
present at the execution of Charles I, and, after leading a dis- 
solute life for more than eighty years, was one day, after he 
had reached the age of nearly one hundred, hoeing corn in the 
field adjoining the house where Deacon Tillson used to live. 
As he approached in his work a large rock (that may be now 
seen), there suddenly flashed through him the memory of the 
benediction which he had heard the great Flavel pronounce so 
many years before ; this so affected him that he gave his heart 
to God and united with the church, and during the last years of 
his life was an earnest, devout. Christian man. He died at the 
great age of one hundred and sixteen years. Yesterday, as I 
drove past that field and saw that rock there, I could but think 
that that, as well as those old meeting-houses, was another 
monument to the power of the same gospel, here preached for 
two hundred years, in changing the lives and characters of men. 

To that old church must have come the men, women, and 
children of this entire townshij) on the memorable Salibath of 
the fall of 1746, to unite with the churches of the colony 
in prayer for deliverance from the impending calamity that 
threatened with destruction the entire Enolish colonies. Owino; 
to the protracted disputes between the English and French 
people, Louis XV had determined, as the most effective 
blow he could administer to his ancient enemy, to devastate 
her settlements in New England. Accordingly, the largest 
fleet that ever sailed from France, consisting of seventy ships, 
under the command of her most experienced admiral, was sent 
forth. So confident was the admiral of victory, that he or- 
dered a huge broom to be hoisted from the mainmast of his 
flagship, as a symbol that he was to sweep the name of the 
English from the Atlantic coast. Great was the peril of 
the colonists. England was not more alarmed by the great 



ORATION BY THOMAS WESTON 71 

Spanish Armada in 1588 than were the colonies at this time. 
They had no fleet that could resist such a powerful armament, 
and were Avithout means of defence ; their only hope of de- 
liverance was from the God that had so often come to their 
rescue. Accordingly, the people of the colonies met in their 
respective places of worship to spend a day in fasting and in 
prayer for their deliverance. The people of Boston assembled 
in the Old South Church, and spent the entire day in prayer. 
The next night there came such a storm as was never before 
known on the Atlantic, and the great French fleet was sepa- 
rated, most of the vessels broken or destroyed, and l)ut few of 
the seventy vessels escaped. The admiral, in his chagrin, com- 
mitted suicide ; and Gov. Hutchinson, in his history of these 
times, said that "pious men saw the inunediate hand of Divine 
Providence in the protection, or rather rescue, of the colonies." 

And to this house of God, during the ministry of Rev. Mr. 
Thacher, came the four hundred and sixty men, women, and 
children who publicly renounced their sins and professed their 
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. If they that turn many to 
righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever, what 
must have been the reward that awaited that godly man as he 
passed on through the gates into the celestial city ! 

But perhaps the most interesting associations connected with 
any of these church edifices cluster about the meeting-house 
standing upon the site of ^^onder foundation from al)Out 1745 
to 1828. Its form was similar to the churches of that day. 
It had its high pulpit, its sounding board, and its square pews ; 
its seats for Negroes and Indians ; its pews for the deaf and for 
the old men and women ; its pew for the distinguished judge 
and his family ; its place for the tithing man. 

This was one of the churches in which the great Whitefield 
preached during his visit to America. Here worshiped Judge 
Oliver, the most eminent man in the colony prior to the l)reak- 
ing out of the Revolution, to whose stately residence, situated 
on the brow of ]\Iuttock Hill, came the most distinguished men 
who visited the colonies. His family attended this church 



72- FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

during thirty years, aud for most of that period he was leader 
of the singing. One of the good ladies disaffected with the 
new order of things being introduced into the church, in dis- 
paragement thereof wrote to one of her friends that " even the 
judge of the land was bawling in the gallery with the l)oys." 

It was in this church that Benjamin Franklin, during his 
visit to the eminent Dr. Clark, worshiped, and during the 
intermission between the morning and afternoon services gave 
that interesting conversation, remem))ered not only by those 
who heard it, but the traditions of which still lino-er amonof us. 

Here worshiped Gov. Bowdoin while a resident of our town. 
Here came Gov. Hutchinson and his family when passing their 
summers at Muttock. Here came to worship Sir William 
Temple while visiting the colony, and others equally eminent 
in English history. Here was to l)e found, in his l)oyhood, 
Thomas Prince, the eminent pastor of the Old South Church of 
Boston. 

As I wandered . last evening about yonder church-yard, I 
lingered with awe and reverence a))out the stone erected in 
memory of Mr. Conant, the fourth pastor of this church. 
From the high pulpit in that grand old meeting-house, which 
some of you remember to have seen, he, in his most elo- 
quent and forcil>le utterances, urged his people to resist the 
atrocities that were Ijeing perpetrated during the French and 
Indian War. With 1)urning words he fearlessly advised resist- 
ance to the oppression of the mother country, to the odious 
Stamp Act, the unjust tax upon tea, the l)loody massacre on 
State Street in the town of Boston, and went out as chaplain of 
one of the regiments of the Old Colony that he might stay up 
the hands and support the feelile knees of those of this church 
and this town who were standing and righting upon the Imttle- 
fields of the Revolution. It was by his stirring, patriotic 
words that Joshua Eddy, one of the deacons of this church, 
with thirty-five others of its members and many more from this 
town, were induced to enlist and then cheered on and encour- 
aged to take the glorious part they did in that fearful struggle 





^^^ 



OT FLYMOUIH OOmiTt: MASS 



ORATIOX BV THOMAS WESTOX 78 

for liberty and for an independent nation. Among this num- 
ber were officers of distinction and private soldiers of unsur- 
passed valor. Some of them were at Lexington and Bunker 
Hill ; some were at Saratoga and saw the surrender of Bur- 
goyne ; some in Rhode Island and New York; some l)ravely 
endured the hardships and privations of Monmouth and Prince- 
ton ; and the survivors, at the close of the war for independ- 
ence, here came to unite in the prayers of thanksgiving of 
this church for the deliverance which Almighty God had seen 
fit to grant to the nation. " The sacramental hosts were not all 
wasted ])y these tribulations." 

Time does not permit me to name the prominent men of the 
toAvn and colony who found that old edifice a place for spirit- 
ual refreshment, where they gained strength and courage that 
enabled them so manfully to meet and so bravely to endure 
the hardships, struggles, and sacrifices of the French and 
Indian War and the fiercer struggles of the Kevolution. It 
was one of the historic spots of the country, and, whatever 
may be the interest attached to other localities, that old 
church, with what it had seen and what had transpired within 
its walls, was certainly among the places long to l)e remem- 
bered in the history of New England. 

And what shall I say of the associations connected with fJiis 
house, which linger in the recollection of some of you as 
among the most precious memories of your lives? It was 
designed by one of the l>est architects of that day, Deacon 
Ebenezer Sproat. It was ])uilt in 1828, and dedicated the 
next year. Well might Daniel Welister have said, as he rode 
past it soon after its dedication, that it was the finest church 
edifice in New England. 

There are those l)efore me who rememlier the vast audience 
that used to gather here for years after it was dedicated. As 
I stand here, there come before me the men and their families 
who occupied these pews in my earliest boyhood. Such men 
and such women ! It was at that time often said by strangers 
that there was no such congregation, outside of Boston, in the 



74 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

State. There could not have been found a better representa- 
tion of the sturdy, intelligent, well-to-do yeomanry of that 
day than used to gather in this house, or higher ideals of 
manhood and womanhood of fifty and sixty years ago than 
those who then occupied these pews. One and another, yea, 
a score and more, of those men seem to come up before me — 
juen well known and respected all over the country, represent- 
ing the various industries and occupations of life. I recal 
thirteen successful merchants, four eminent physicians, law- 
yers whose reputations extended all over this Commonwealth, 
a dozen skilful mechanics, of each of whom Longfellow's 
delightful poem, "The Village Blacksmith," was more than 
true ; and manufacturers whose wares were sent all over the 
country, and whose enterprise w^as not to be excelled by any 
in the country. There were men here in the church and soci- 
ety of wide political intluence, who tilled important positions 
in the town, county, and State. There were men and women 
here well versed in literature, whose pens were a power in the 
world of thought and letters. There were those who could 
cope with the ablest in the subtle questions of law, of the- 
ology, and of history. Here were poets and artists of national 
fame. There was one, often the guest of Jefferson and Chief 
Justice Marshall. There were men here, widely known in civil 
and military circles, — one the intimate friend of the elder and 
the younger Adams. Who of us can ever forget that long roll 
that might be called of dignified, intelligent, strong, well-to-do 
farmers, with their large families, that in those days occupied 
so many of these pews ? 

There were here, too, strong, earnest, devout Christian men 
and women. The great objects of Christian charity and benev- 
olence, to ameliorate and make better our humanity, that then 
were just coming before the world, received their fullest and 
most cordial sympathy and support. The streams of Christian 
charity that flowed from these pews have made glad the dark 
places of our world. 

Who of us who remember those days can ever forget the 



ORATION BY THOMAS WESTOX 75 

large choir that crowded these galleries, the skilful players ou 
instruments, their earnest leader, or, after the afternoon ser- 
vice, those long lines of carriages that radiated from this sacred 
center to the many neighborhoods of this large parish ? 

There are memories that crowd upon us as we sit here 
to-day that are sweet to some of us, and which time cannot 
obliterate. 

What records are here ! of what unwritten history am I tell- 
ing, and how much more than I tell do you recal ! 

" O, many the thoughts of the heart, 
As we stand by this temple of God 
And think of the worshipers, vanished and gone, 
Who up to its courts have trod ! 

" They came in the joy of their souls. 

Or they came Avith their burdens to bear, 
In the sunlight of youth, in the evening of age, 
In hope, or in grief and despair. 

" O, strong is the tie that entwines. 

And subtle the mystical cord 
That binds human souls, with their sorrows and sins, 
To the altar and house of the Lord." ' 

And what shall I say more? Time would fail me to tell of 
the pastors of this church ; of the saintly Fuller ; of the erring 
but repentant Palmer ; of the faithful, godly Thacher ; of the 
kind, earnest, and patriotic Conant ; of the pious. Christian 
statesman. Barker ; of the gentle, earnest Paine ; of the schol- 
arly Eaton ; of the devout, winning, able Putnam, who 

"... watched and wept, he prayed and felt for all; 
And, as a bird each fond endearment tries, 
To tempt his new-fledged oflspring to the skies, 
He tried each art, reproved each dull delay, 
Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way " ; ^ 

and of Sawyer, Hidden, and Sawin, whose memories are still 
fragrant with their piety, their goodness and zeal in the work 
of their Master, — all " who through faith subdued kingdoms, 

^ From Rev. Increase N. Tarbox, D.D., poem, " The Country Church." 
2 Goldsmith, " The Deserted Village." 



76 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

wrought righteousness, ol)tained promises, stopped the mouths 
of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the 
sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in 
fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens." 

I can see those liefore me who might have known men and 
women who had talked with the founders of this church. We 
have stood to-day where they stood ; have walked in paths 
that were familiar to them ; have had pass before us scenes 
which were eventful in their lives, and have stood with un- 
covered heads beside their last resting place — one life between 
us and them. What thoughts crowd upon the mind on an 
occasion like this, as we span the distance between us and 
them ; what records have been made in the world's history 
since the records which we have perused to-day ; what progress 
among the nations ; what changes have these two hundred 
years wrought ; what advance in art, in science, in literature : 
what marvelous inventions ; what magnificent charities ; what 
progress in government, in liberty, in human rights ; what 
gigantic strides in overcoming the darkness of the heathen 
world ! and yet all of this is the story of what they and their 
children and their children's children contril)uted in their da}' 
and generation, which has taken root and grown into the mar- 
velous proportions we witness to-day. 

The little colonies have grown to the great nation of the 
United States of America, with its sixty-five million of inhabi- 
tants ; from the Atlantic to the Pacific there are homes of peace 
and plenty ; and a government has grown from the little town 
meeting of the colonies to the great government of the United 
States that secures to the humblest citizen life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of happiness. 

When the foundations of this church were laid there was 
scarcely a missionary society in the world, and to-day the in- 
fant is living that in all human probability will see the spread 
of the same gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ so 
dear to our fathers throughout the length and lireadth of the 
world. Such marvelous results, such wonderful achievements. 



ORATION BY THOMAS WESTON 77 

such magniticent success, were of their planting, their nurturing, 
and their training, that we might enjoy the fruits thereof ! 

These two hundred years have witnessed the overthrow of 
the French power in the new world and the establishment 
and successful maintenance of the independence from the 
mother country of the thirteen original colonies, the success- 
ful resistance to her encroachments in 1812, and, grander than 
all, the wiping out of that relic of l^arbarism in our own coun- 
try that had come down from the dark past, all at such cost of 
treasures of life and of property. As I stand in this place 
and cast my eyes over this large audience, I see the seat and 
recal the face of one and another and another of those who 
started life with me, but who are not with us to-day — one, 
from exposure in the swamps of Chickamauga, lingered for 
months, and then his life went on beyond ; another fell at 
Antietam ; another, climbing the breastworks of Fredericks- 
burg, was pierced with a dozen rebel bullets ; another died 
from wounds at Cold Harbor ; and another, whose bones are 
resting in a nameless grave under the shades at Arlington. 
1^0 greater service was rendered l)y our fathers in the forma- 
tion of our institutions and government than was rendered by 
those l)rave men, the companions of my boyhood, who gave 
their lives in defending what our fathers builded so well. 

Brethren, amid all the changes of successive generations, as 
they come and go, we, the children of those who two hundred 
years ago here worshiped the true and living God, must never 
forget the credit due to this ancient and honored church for 
the lives that have l)een here lived, for the characters of those 
men and Avomen, for the good they exerted, and for all they 
helped to accomplish. Their faith, their principles, are our 
crown jewels ; see to it that they are ever sacredly guarded. 

And so to-day we " walk about Zion, and go round aljouther : 
tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider 
her palaces ; that ye may tell it to the generation following. 
For this God is our God for ever and ever : he will be our 
guide even unto death." 



78 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

At the end of Mr. Weston's oration a bass song, "The 
breaking waves dashed high" {Mrs. Hemans), music by Brown, 
was sung by Messrs. G. A. Cox and H. F. Wood. 

It had been planned that the Governor of the Commonwealth 
for which the Pilgrim churches did so much, the Hon! Frederic 
T. Greenhalge, might speak on this occasion, but there was a 
misunderstanding as to the date, and his Excellency was not 
present. 

The following letter was read : — 

Executive Mansion, Washington, 
Aug. 16, 18'J4. 
My Dear Sir, — The President directs me to acknowledge the receipt 
of your letter of the 9th inst., in which you invite him to attend the 
celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the First Congregational 
■Church of Middleboro, and to express his regrets that it will be impossi- 
ble both for Mrs. Cleveland and for him to attend the interesting exer- 
cises which you have prepared for the occasion. The President asks me 
to thank you for the thoughtfulness and consideration of which your 
courteous invitation is an evidence. 

Very truly yours, 

Henry T. Thurber, 

Private Secretary. 
Eev. George W. Stearns, 

Middleboro, 3Iass. 





e ^^^ 




MK. snood's address 79 

The President of the Day. — It has been our lot often to 
bless other churches by dismissing to them with loving re- 
luctance our own highly prized members. Numbers of these 
have come back to their old mother church for these two 
days of anniversary joy. It is said that when wild winds, one 
summer day in 1822, suddenly assaulted and overwhelmed 
the boat in which sat the gifted though sadly wayward young 
poet, Shelley, friends on the Italian shore, near which the 
tragedy occurred, ])urned to ashes the mortal remains of the 
almost peerless singer, except his heart, which was borne rever- 
ently away, pathetically poor treasure though it was, to repose 
in his native England. Our next speaker, who enlisted here in 
Christ's sublime service more than a half century ago, is one 
whose name indeed we have lost from our roll of present mem- 
})ers, but whose heart, never lost, is still ours. I have the 
privilege of presenting one venerated and lieloved by us all, 
our reverend brother, Charles W. Wood. 



THE OLD MEETING-HOUSE 



ADDRESS OF REV. CHARLES W. WOOD 



The highest point on the Plymouth & Middleboro Railroad 
is very near the house built and occupied by the late Dr. 
Sturtevant, and opposite that house can now be seen the out- 
lines of the first church which was erected by the settlers of 
Middleboro. The elevation of land in this vicinity probably 
determined its selection as the center of the town. The resi- 
dence of the first minister was only a few rods from this 
meeting-house. 

This house was sold, 1701, for £5, 2s. 

The second house of worship was located near the school 
house, opposite the present parsonage. It was thirty-six by 
thirty, sixteen feet stud. It had two ridge-poles and four 

' The lamented death of Rev. (Charles W. Wood occurred at his home in 
Middleboro, March 3, 1895. He was born in this town, June 20, 1814, and 
united with the church on confession of faith in 1837, being numbered 948 in 
the descriptive catalog. 



80 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

gable ends. It at first had no pews. Rev. Mr. Thacher watj 
the first person to whom consent was given by the parish 
to build a pew in some convenient place for the use of his 
family, and not long afterwards nineteen other persons were 
permitted to erect pews at their own expense. 

Before this time the seats were probably, like those in most 
of the meeting-houses in the neighboring towns, long, narrow, 
uncomfortable l)enches, without any support for the l)ack. 
This house was at one time considerably enlarged to accommo- 
date the increasing number of worshipers ; its roof was re- 
moved, and a modern one substituted, and other changes were 
made in its general appearance. In consequence of unhappy 
differences arising from the controversy between the " old 
lio:hts " and the " new lights," which then agitated the 
churches, two societies existed here for a while, and a new 
meeting-house was erected in 1745. This division was soon 
healed, and the old meeting-house was sold, and the parish 
was united again for worship in the new house. 

The meeting-house built in 1745 stood but a few rods from 
where we now are, and remained until 1829. Of that house 
I have quite a distinct recollection. I remember with clear- 
ness sitting upon my mother's foot-stove, and resting my head 
in her lap ; and I can almost feel now the weariness with 
which I looked into her face, and asked, "Isn't he almost 
done?" I referred to the minister, who was Rev. Mr. Paine. 
I see him as he stands in the lofty pulpit, with his long cloak, 
and with black gloves upon his hands, from which the finger 
tips had been cut off that he might more easily turn the leaves 
of the Bible or his sermon. 

The body of the house, as I remember it, was somewhat 
longer north and south than it was east and west, of suflScient 
hight to admit of two rows of windows, one above the other, 
tilled with a great number of small panes of glass. From the 
eastern side an ample portico extended, upon which was a 
steeple containing a large belfry, in which, however, a bell 
never swung. Large doors opened from the eastern side into 



3IR. wood's address 81 

a vestibule, upon whose walls were many notices, especially 
of intended marriages, which all were eager to read before 
entering upon public worship or at the noon recess. From the 
north and also from the south, side doors opened immediately 
into the audience room. 

The interior of the church presented to youthful eyes a 
somewhat magnificent appearance, with its lofty ceiling over- 
head, its deep galleries upon three sides, and an imposing pul- 
pit occupying a large portion of the fourth side. 

The pulpit was of dizzy hight, overshadowed by a widely 
extended sounding-board. A few feet below the top of the 
pulpit was a large enclosure, capable of holding a considerable 
number of persons who, on account of deafness, wished to be 
seated near the preacher, and below this was an extended seat 
for the deacons, of whom, I think, there were four, and before 
this seat was suspended on hinges the communion table, to be 
raised at the communion service. 

In these primitive meeting-houses, it was no uncommon 
thing for the snows of winter to penetrate, especially around 
the large window at the rear of the pulpit, so that the minister 
often found his place more than usually uncomfortable from 
his snowy surroundings. I recollect to have heard, many 
years ago, of an amusing event which was said to have occurred 
in Middleboro or in some neighboring town. 

The preacher found the top of his pulpit well covered with 
snow. He stood up and with his right hand brushed a portion 
of it off, not minding where it went. He observed a smile 
upon the faces of people. He looked over to see what he had 
done, and discovered that he had sent a cold shower upon the 
head of the solitary person who was seated in the deaf seat 
below. Pie then brushed with his left hand the remaining 
snow in an opposite direction. He observed that his audience 
were more amused than before. He looked down again upon 
the seat below, and fo- nd that the man he had so seriously 
annoyed had moved, and in consequence had received another 
cold chill from his thous^htless minister. 



82 riEST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

The large square pews of the meeting-house were arranged 
on all sides against the walls ; aisles in front of them extended 
all around, and the space in the center was filled with pews 
and aisles in a somewhat complicated manner ; for I remember 
it was sometimes a puzzling operation for me to discover my 
way to certain pews I wished to find. The pews were filled 
with seats on two or three sides, attached by hinges to the 
walls, so that they could be raised during the long prayer, 
permitting worshipers to stand with hands or arms resting 
upon the rail at the top. At the close of the prayer these 
seats went down, making a noise like a discharge of musketry 
at a muster. 

"Aud when at last the loud ameu 

Fell from aloft, how quickly then 

The seats came down with heavy rattle, 

Like musketry in fiercest battle." 

A by-law of one of our towns reads : " The people are to 
let their seats down without such noise." And another : "The 
boys are not to wickedly noise down their pew-seats." 

Some of these seats, with hinges attached, may be seen now 
in the chapel, in the rear of the church, which did service in 
the old meeting-house a hundred years ago. 

The tops of the pews, as I remember them, were ornamented 
with little balusters of artistic form, which were often turned 
by childish hands, and made to squeak, to the amusement of 
the little ones, and to the annoyance of older ones. 

These open balustrades afforded opportunity for children to 
look into neighboring pews, and occasionally to cast a paper 
ball at another youth, who was readily recognized. At a 
somewhat later period of life, through these openings sly mis- 
sives were sometimes passed which were of more interest than 
anything the most eloquent preacher could utter. 

Not many days ago, a lady, now present, described to me 
the meeting-house of her girlish days, which was very much 
like the one which stood here, and she remembers on one 
occasion recognizino-, through the baluster cubby-holes of the 



MR. wood's address 83 

pew in which she was seated, a boy of her acquaintance ; their 
eyes met, and so marked were tlieir smiles of recognition that 
smiles of sympathy were seen on many faces around them. 
I was somewliat surprised to learn that that boy was the son 
of the beloved pastor who, in subsequent years, occupied this 
pulpit for a third of a century. 

This top rail of adjoining pews was used by older persons as 
well as by younger ones. During the long service of a hot 
Sunday, the grateful smelling-bottle or sprigs of caraway, dill, 
or fennel, or southernwood were passed by farmer, wife, or 
daughter as a defence against sleepiness. The poet has given 
us the picture. 

And when I tired and restless grew, 
Our next pew neighbor, Mrs. True, 
Reached her kind hand the top rail through, 
To hand me dill and fennel too, 
And sprigs of caraway. 

And as I munched the spicy seeds, 
I dimlj' felt that kindly deeds 
That thus supply our present needs, 
Though only gifts of pungent weeds, 
Show true religion. 

And often now through sermon trite, 
And operatic singer's flight, 
I long for that old friendly sight, 
The hand with herl)s of value light. 
To help to pass the time. 

It was a custom in many places for hard working men to 
stand up for a while and lean over the top of the pew duriuo- 
the sermon. I read that the deacon of a certain church never 
let a summer Sunday pass without thus resting himself. 

One da}^ having ill secured the wooden button of the pew 
door, his leaning place gave way and out he fell with a loud 
noise upon the Hoor of the aisle. It may well be imagined 
there was no more sleeping for him or his neighbors during 
the remainder of the sermon. 

A youth of our congregation, some way in his restlessness, 



84 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

at one time thrust his head through the balusters, and was 
unable to get it back again until, with a little commotion, he was 
released by friendly hands which came to his rescue. 

It was not always peace and harmony in the old meeting- 
house. The sons of the Pilgrims had too much of the spirit 
of independence and of individual responsibility never to 
differ in opinion from one another. 

One subject of difference was the introduction of stoves into 
the church, one party contending for it, and another very 
strongly opposed to it. Arguments were advanced with great 
spirit, pro and con, producing oftentimes an unlovely and 
bitter feeling among neighbors and former friends. Tradition 
tells us of the woman who was so oppressed by the heat of the 
stove which had been introduced that she was carried out 
fainting, and upon recovery, declared that it was caused by 
the offensive heat of the stove, and that she could attend 
church here no more ; but she changed her vieAvs somewhat 
when she learned that no lire had as yet been kindled in 
the stove. 

It is somewhat remarkable that this story is substantially 
told in the history of half a dozen of the churches of New 
England. 

Another subject which caused a great deal of trouble in the 
church was the introduction of instrumental music. After a 
struggle, the bass viol was admitted as help for the voices. 
So great was the opposition of a prominent member, that he 
threatened to absent himself if this instrument should be seen 
in the church. It is said that a neighbor accused this man of 
trespassing upon his land, and he proposed to hang a bass viol 
upon one of his trees, saying that the sight of it was so offen- 
sive that it would keep his trespassing neighbor far away 
from his premises. 

The violin was admitted on the condition that it should be 
played upside down, for then it would be a viol, and by no 
means a fiddle. 

Then followed a great number of instruments of music, the 



I 



MR. wood's address 85 

double bass viol, the bassoon, the serpent, the flute, clarinet, 
and French horn, forming an orchestra or brass band. 

It is said that some of the ancients, after the performance 
of the choir under these new conditions, left the church in 
tears, feeling that the worshipers in God's house had be- 
come servants of Nebuchadnezzar, whose herald proclaimed, 
" At what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, 
sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye 
fall down and worship." 

The old meeting-house, though its summer heats and its 
winter coldness could not l)e forgotten, must have been left 
with many regrets by those who had there worshiped the God 
of their fathers. It must have been associated with many 
pleasant memories of persons and events of the past. Many 
distinguished men had been worshipers there. Some of the 
highest officers of the State had been seen there, the guests of 
Judge Oliver, who received the appointment of Chief Justice 
from the crown of Great Britain. 

Benjamin Franklin once sat in one of the pews and listened 
to the preacher, and entertained large numbers of the peo- 
ple who crowded around him at the intermission and list- 
ened with rapt attention to his wise words, of which they could 
make profitable use in after years, as they repeated to their 
children the sayings of Poor Richard, as they were then told 
to call him. 

Many could tell of the visit of the world-noted Whitefield, 
who found the house so crowded as he attempted to enter that 
he could gain admission only by a ladder through the pulpit 
window in the rear, when he preached a remarkable sermon 
from the text, " I am this day weak, though anointed king," 
which had been suggested to him not many minutes before by 
the pastor, who for some reason was passing through a season of 
despondency. 

There were also memories of remarkable triumphs of the 
gospel which these walls had witnessed and by them had been 
hallowed. During the period which elapsed between the build- 



86 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

ing of this house in 1745 and its removal in 1829, four hundred 
and twenty-five persons had been numbered with the members 
of the church. 

On account of the interesting associations connected with 
the old meeting-house, it must have been left with some degree 
of sadness, though the beautiful new meeting-house opened its 
ample doors, inviting all to thankfulness and praise, that God 
had put into the hearts of his people to prepare for his worship 
a house of such extended proportions, of such comeliness and 
comfort. 



Following Mr. Wood's address was an anthem by the choir : 
" All hail the Power of Jesus' Name " {T. M. Tcmiie). 



The President of the Day. — I have the pleasure now to in- 
troduce one who, years ago, wandered away from old Middle- 
boro and the protecting wing of the First Church, but who, I 
am well assured, has ever fondly cherished his remembrances of 
the good old days which some of you here present may have 
shared with him ; one who bears a name highly honored in 
the annals of our venerable church, as well as in the wider 
circles of the business world, — Mr. John Eddy, of Providence. 



ME. eddy's addeess 87 



ADDRESS OF MR. JOHN EDDY 

Mr. Peesident : When Dr. Wayland was president of 
Brown University, an unsuccessful country minister applied to 
him for a professorship in that institution. The doctor in- 
quired of him what chair he considered himself best qualified 
to fill. The parson replied, " I kinder thought I might slide 
into e'en a'most any on 'em."' 

When your committee inquired what part I would take in 
this celebration, I replied that I kinder thought I should pre- 
fer to slide into a postscript. 

Anxious mothers are said to keep their children close in 
summer time, but in the winter to let them slide. This season 
of the year is not propitious for that kind of recreation, and I 
have been fearing that the temperature may give me a slide in 
cjuite another direction. 

I find myself in the position of the Irishman who was 
directed to blow some powders through a tulje into a horse's 
throat. When inquired of about his success, he declared that 
he had none at all, for the horse took advantage of him. 

By the addresses of yesterday and to-day, the wind has been 
taken out of my sail, so far as reminiscences go (as the Brit- 
tania did it for the Vigilant). I will not, therefore, use" vain 
repetitions, as the heathen do." 

Just fifty-seven years ago, I heard Hon. Orestes A. Bronson 
(then a promising light) deliver an oration, in which he com- 
pared the government of England to that of the United States. 
He spoke of the ruling classes as having been largely born to 
their positions, but he thanked God that, in this country, if a 
man was born at all he was well born. Why not go a little 
further and say that the institutions of New England are all 
"well born"? Especially that of this church, whose natal day 
we honor ourselves in celebrating. Let us publicly thank 
God for its foundation, that its history has been so full of 



88 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

Divine guidance, and has through all these years been so replete 
with benignity. 

As our fathers were English, we have naturally credited 
England with more than its share in shaping our destinies. 

New England " was born in Geneva, expanded in Holland, and 
transplanted to Scotland, and begat the revolution in England, 
and went over in the ' Mayflower ' with the Pilgrims to the 
New World, to seek a temple for the God of liberty and a 
refuge for human rights." 

By the experiences of our English ancestors gained in Hol- 
land, we inherit the best that was then known of government, 
education, and religion. 

It is not to these, however, that I wish to call your atten- 
tion, Ixit rather to the inestimable value that our ancestors put 
upon pious homes. From their expressions, both in public 
and in private correspondence, it is apparent that their chief 
idea and inducement in emigrating to the New World was to 
establish homes in which they might be secure "from great 
men's oppression and the bishop's rage," and where they 
might hand down to posterity their idea of a Christian 
household. 

They appreciated the goodness of God that he had " set the 
solitary in families." 

The comparatively mild laws which were enacted by the 
Plymouth Colony, and the more oppressive statutes of Massa- 
chusetts Bay, had their origin in their overwhelming desire to 
protect their homes from injurious contact with the perverse 
ways of the world. 

In England, their homes had been subject to search, and it 
was here provided at an early day that a man's house should 
be inviolate. 

How would our fathers turn in their graves to find a law 
on our statute books which gives the right to a civil ofl3.cer to 
search a home, even though it might be reasonably sure that 
intoxicating liquors would be brought to light. 

In some of the western States, the sanctity of home has been 



MR. eddy's address 89 

provided for in their constitutions by making a homestead 
exempt from attachment for the debts of the owner. 

The only excuse for such a provision is that the home is 
thereby preserved, from which flows all that is best in our 
civilization. For that reason, it is worthy of imitation. 

In no other country does the word mean so much as here. 
Nor is there one where the home is more sacredly guarded and 
kept more pure. 

In some languages, there is no w^ord corresponding to our 
word "home," nor is there the virtue that prevails here. 

It is, therefore, in the spirit of our Pilgrim Fathers that we 
so love to sing the song which is, and ever shall be, most dear 
to our hearts, — 

" 'Mid pleasures and palaces tho' we may roam, 
Be it ever so humble, there 's no place like home. 
A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there, 
Which, seek thro' the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere. 

Home, Home, sweet, sweet Home, 

Thei'e 's no place like Home, 

O, there 's no place like Home." 

To the homes of the Pilgrims, women contributed the larger 
share of influence, deprivation, and labor. As there were no 
servants, women not only did their own work but spun and 
wove, reared, on an average, eight children, and made the 
clothing of the family, and, if occasion required could do things 
more heroic. It w^as a grandmother of mine who, on hear- 
ing the pigs squeal, concluded that a wild beast was in the pen, 
and in a dark night, while her lord was absent, took the old 
King's-arm from al)ove the mantel and bagged a bear. 
What man could be so audacious as to refuse such woman's 
rights ? 

It was Elizabeth, the wife of Samuel Eddy, my first ancestor 
in this country, who walked from Plymouth to Boston on a 
Sunday to be at the deathbed of Mrs. Saffin, and was fined 
four shillings sixpence therefor by the governor and assistants. 

Within the limits of this parish, while but twenty houses 
had been built in Middleboro, at the time of the breaking out 



90 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

of King Philip's War (1675), John Eddy was hoeing corn in 
his field with his trusty musket at his side. Indians were lurk- 
ing in his neighborhood with deadly intent. He perceived one 
in the distance and drew a bead upon him and the Indian fell. 
At the same instant the Indian also fired, and the bullets 
passed each other. The bullet of the Indian knocked the 
hammer off the gun of my ancestor. So near did his descend- 
ants here present come to missing this anniversary. 

While glorifying our fathers, let us never forget to do 
greater homage to our mothers. 

How vividly do I remember the home of one who for twenty- 
eight years was a deacon of this church, which came as near to 
the Christian ideal as can well be conceived. He was a 
patriarch of the old school, and a captain during the war of the 
Revolution. It is some sixty-five years since he went to his 
home above. He had a numerous family, and five of his sons 
settled near the paternal mansion. But such an attraction did 
the old home possess that for many years after these sons, at 
the hour of evening prayer, gathered around the old family 
altar. To such is the promise that their peace shall flow like 
a river. 

Their social gatherings ended with a prayer of thanksgiving 
and a song of praise and John Newton's doxology. 

If any one in the neighborhood was known to have offended 
against morality, the good old deacon would be so grieved that 
with tears in his eyes he would beg the delinquent not to offend 
again in like manner, till it became a threat against evil-doers : 
" I will set the deacon on to you." 

On one occasion he heard a stranger use profane language. 
Without a word, the countenance of the good man betrayed his 
grief. They parted without speaking. A short time there- 
after the stranger returned and acknowledged the reproof and 
vowed he would never again use a profane expression. 

But it was on Thanksgiving days that his whole soul seemed 
to be poured out in gratitude and praise. On the evening 
before, the numerous progeny began to assemble till the vil- 



MR. eddy's address 91 

lage was overflow ino-. From far and near they came, attracted 
by the magnetism of that home influence. No special invita- 
tions were given, and their coming was a matter of course. 
The welcome was unbounded, and the whole neighborhood 
entered into the spirit of it. It was the red-letter day of all 
the year. The morning was spent at church in public and 
devout thanksgiving. And what singing they did enjoy in 
those good old days, when a hundred voices Avere led by a 
bugle and a dozen other musical instruments ! How vividly 
did the plains of Palestine rise to my youthful imagination, 
when rang out so as to shake the building : — 

" While shepherds watched their flocks by night, 
All seated ou the ground, 
The angel of the Lord came do"wn. 
And glory shone around." 

So also when " All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name " was 
rendered, I could see the multitude assembling, coming from 
all Christian nations to " crown him Lord of all." 

There was a Thanksgiving dinner in every house, and in the 
evening came the grand reunion at the patriarchal mansion. 

Of all religious meetings or ceremonies, I have never wit- 
nessed one that compared with it in pathos. Had any been in 
trouble, heart-felt sympathy did its perfect work. Had any 
been unfortunate, genuine benevolence made the losses good. 
Had there been any misunderstandings, all were healed and 
geniality mingled with prayer and praise. It was to every 
one present a never-to-be-forgotten benediction. " A charm 
from the skies seemed to hallow us there." 

The whole family were musical, and one of the daughters 
had a charmino- and ringing voice. When it struck the treble 
in those old fugue tunes, it seemed to raise the rafters. It 
may be from association, but I had ratlier hear that music than 
the modern scientiflc. 

"If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her 
cunning ; . . . if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy." 

I think I voice the sentiment of the descendants of the good 



92 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

old deacon to the fourth generation here present, when I 
declare that we will ever hold his example in grateful remem- 
brance, and will ever be thankful for such an ancestry. 

A logical product of that home influence I call to mind in 
the delightful remembrance of that spotless young man ^ who 
was so deeply interested in the welfare of this church (as 
well as in the one to which he belonged in the chief city of the 
State), and who would have contriliuted by his presence so 
much to the success of this festival, had he lived a few months 
longer. As the pencil of the Holy Ghost has recorded noth- 
ing against the character of Joseph, so the record of this 
righteous young man is without a stain. Other families in 
this grand old parish can undoubtedly furnish a sketch of their 
own equally worthy, for all of which let us thank God and 
take courage. 

No better illustration of a Christian home can be found than 
that of the late Rev. Dr. Israel W. Putnam, who was for so many 
years the beloved pastor of this church. He was a born genial 
gentleman, brimful of the milk of human kindness. No one 
could have been more sympathetic, benevolent, and helpful, 
and no one has left a more enduring and delightful memory. 
His spiritual children rise up and call him blessed. 

Let us then imitate the virtues and heroism of our fathers, and 
especially such as relate to loving and pure homes, and let us 
hand them down unimpaired to the last syllable of recorded time. 

" Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, 

As the swift seasons roll! 

Leave thy low-vaulted past ! 
Let each new temple, nobler than the last. 
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast. 

Till thou at length art free. 
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting s^ !" 

1 Francis G. Pratt, Jr. See page 120. 




_J 



C^^rK'<^(u^ ^ , .y/T-^o^ s^ 



JUDGE fuller's ADDRESS 93 

The President of the Day. — While we hopefully face 
the unknown future, many of the felicitous utterances of this 
festal occasion naturally turn the mind backward, as if to 
stem the stream of time, — a task which only the mind may 
perform. Far away in the earliest years of our history, those 
pristine times of simplicity, hardship, heroism, and piety, looms 
up the personality of our original pastor, Samuel Fuller, of 
revered memory. We are fortunate in having with us to-day 
one of his lineal descendants, who in the legal profession sus- 
tains the dignity illustrated by his forefathers in the minis- 
terial and medical. With much pleasure I introduce Judge 
Fuller, of Taunton. 



ADDRESS OF HON. WILLIAM E. FULLER 

Mr. President : With all my heart I join with you to-day 
in paying a tribute of honor to the fathers of this church. 

Its rolls bear the names of my father and my mother, Jabez 
Fuller and Sally Churchill Fuller. 

On headstones, near the gate of the opposite burying-grouud, 
you may read the names of my grandparents, Doctor Jonathan 
Fuller and Lucy Eddy Fuller. 

My parents moved to another church in 1826, and my grand- 
father died in 1802, so that probably no man now living in 
this parish remembers either of them. To you I am a 
stranger, but to myself I seem to be standing among kindred 
spirits. Doctor Jonathan Fuller was the grandson of Doctor 
Isaac Fuller, who, in turn, was the youngest son of Rev. Samuel 
Fuller, the first minister of the First Church of Christ in 
Middleboro. 

Only four generations of my ancestors in the Fuller line 
stand between me and the tirst minister. 

Do you recal with deep and sympathetic interest the names 
of those pioneers, children of the Pilgrims, who first came 
here from Plymouth to make homes for themselves and their 
descendants, to establish this church of Christ, to found a 
town? So do I. 



94 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

Do your minds stray away from present circumstances and 
linger around the early dwellings of those who first cleared and 
tilled these fields and " dotted them with homes ? So does 
mine. 

Do you often think what strenuous and incessant toil was 
required of them, men, women, and children all alike, only to 
wrench from the unwilling earth their annual subsistence? 
And yet how much beyond all that they created and trans- 
mitted to their descendants ! 

Who built these miles on miles of walls that bound and 
sub-divide your farms? Who first wrought these scores of 
miles of highways that connect farm with farm, and neighbor- 
hood with neighborhood ? Nearly all of them were built by 
the first three generations. 

Let us strive in our imagination to come to-day still nearer 
to the lives of those early dwellers. Let us enter their primi- 
tive dwellings. Not one of them to-day stands upon the face 
of the earth. Sixty years ago, few, if any, remained. But 
you recal the picture of the old-time dwelling ; its low, over- 
hanging roof, its great central chimney, its wooden door-latch, 
and the leather latchstring hanging out by day and pulled in 
by night. Inside you see the great open fireplace, with its 
crane and trammels and pots and skillets, and above the 
mantel-piece the rusty old firelock, high above the reach of the 
children. There stands the rude oaken table around which the 
great family is fed, and here the high-backed settle, saving the 
need of many bark-seated chairs. The piano is not there, but 
the spinning-wheel is, and mother and daughters all alike 
were skilled in drawing forth its soothing roundelay. In the 
corner stands the high-post bed, where pa and ma and baby 
sleep, and underneath it slides the trundle-bed, where two or 
three more tired toddlers snooze and dream. 

We know what stedfast men and women were produced in 
those simple homes. The orator has told you to-day. We 
know them l)y their fruits. They labored, and we have 
entered into their labors. 




_^u^.Uj^ 



JUDGE fuller's ADDRESS 95 

Only once, before to-day, have I sat in this church. It was 
iorty years ago, but I have not yet forgotten the fine, firm 
features of old Dr. Putnam, nor the clear, distinct purpose of 
the sermon that he preached that day. Even now I seem to 
see sitting in these pews other forms than those that you 
behold. Again I seem to be sitting in the pew beside my 
genial, loved, and honored kinsman and namesake, the elder 
"William Eddy. In the pew just in front of me rises up the 
venerable form of good old Joshua Eddy\ whose snowy hair 
and benignant face reflect the mild light of other days. Xot 
far away I see the stern and solemn countenance of old 
Nathaniel Eddy, a typical deacon of the old-time school. 
And just across the aisle mine eyes behold again, with youthful 
admiration, the towering form of the serene and learned old 
counselor, Zechariah Eddy, contemporary and every inch the 
peer of those other eminent lawyers in the old Colony, Marcus 
Morton, William Baylies, and Daniel Webster. 

By your first minister the ministry of this church is very 
closely linked to that of the seer and the prophet of Congre- 
gationalism, the elder John Robinson. Mr. Samuel Fuller, as 
has been told you, was the only son of the Pilgrim, Dr. Samuel 
Fuller, the deacon of the Leyden and the Plymouth church. 
I can pardon you, Mr. Stearns, to-day, if for this day, at least, 
you feel some self-gratulation in being al^le to trace your true 
apostolic succession through such men as old Dr. Putnam, 
Joseph Barker, Sylvanus Conaut, and grand old Peter Thacher, 
up to the great apostles of Congregationalism in New England, 
Elder Brewster and John Robinson. 

Of the first minister of this church we know less than of 
any of his successors. We have a copy of the church record 
kept by him, transcribed hy his grandson. He left no printed 
sermon, and if there is any written sermon or correspondence 
of his now in existence, it is unknown to me. I had hoped 
that my friend Weston would have been able to bring some- 
thing of this kind to light. But he left a precious relic, a 
' See portrait facing page 89. 



96 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

manuscript book, in which it was his custom to enter his 
texts and sub-texts and scriptural quotations to be used by 
him in delivering his off-hand discourses. That book was 
preserved by a branch of his descendants down to forty or fifty 
years ago, when it was given up for safe-keeping to the New 
England Historic-Genealogical Society. I have in my pos- 
session a part of a leaf cut from that book before it was given 
up, and I have mounted it in this frame, where, if any of you 
are curious to see his handwriting, it may still be seen. He 
died one hundred and ninety-nine years ago this month, — 
perhaps, correcting the ancient calendar, it is one hundred and 
ninety-nine years to-day, certainly within one day. His 
people most fittingly buried him on the top of the highest 
summit of the old Hill burying-ground. With pious care, 
they carved a stone and placed it by his grave, and there it 
stands unto this day. It is of fissile substance, and now after 
the storms and frosts of so many winters it is flaking and 
crunibling, and slowly mingling with the dust of him that lies 
buried beneath it. The legend upon it is nearly effaced, but 
it is still readable, as you may see by this photograph taken 
two years ago. It reads : — 

[HERIE LYES BURIED Y^ 
[BODY] OF Y^ REV M' 
[S A] M U E L FULLER WHO 
[DIEPATED THS LIFE AUC^' 
Y® 17*^ 16 9 5 

I N Y^ 71^* YEAR 
O F HIS ACE H E 

WAS Y^ 1^* MINITTER 
OF Y^ 1^* CHURCH OF 
CHRirr IN MIDDLE^"" 



LETTER FROM MR. DEXTER 97 

Most profoundly we thank our pious ancestors for engraving 
upon that stone the tale that tells to us, now two hundred 
years away, the name, the pastoral office, the limits of life, and 
the place of burial, of their first minister. The debt we owe 
to our ancestors can only be paid by us to our posterity, and I 
hope, when the full period of two hundred years shall have 
elapsed, as it will twelve months hence, that the old stone will 
be taken within this church and protected from further storms 
and frosts, and preserved as a sacred memento of a former age, 
an<l that a more enduring block of granite shall be placed upon 
that ancient grave, carrying forward the same legend to the 
generations that shall be born in centuries yet to come. 



After Judge Fuller had spoken, the choir rendered an 
anthem, " From the third heaven where God resides " [Inr/alls) . 



The following letter from the literary editor of the Congre- 
gationalist was then read : — 

Hotel Tudor, Nahant, Mass., Aug. 23, 1894. 
Eev. G. W. Stearns : 

My Bear Sir, — I find that it will be impossible for me to go to Middle- 
boro next Monday. My two editorial associates are away, and I cannot 
be absent from the office, next week, before Wednesday. 

I am greatly disappointed. I did not realize that your celebration 
was to occur so soon. I met Mr. Weston on Tuesday, and had the time 
thus recalled to mind, and since then have been trying to arrange some 
way in which to go. But it cannot be managed. 

I hope that you will not be inconvenienced by my delay, so that the 
only annoyance may be my own. 

Wishing you a most enjoyable occasion, I am, 
Yours very sincerely, 

MoRTOX Dexter. 



98 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

Also the following letter from Ex-Governor Long : — 

5 Tkemoxt Street, Boston, June 15, 1894. 
My Dear Sir, — I wish very much I could attead the celebration of 
the two hundredth anniversary of the First Congregational Church in 
Middleboro. It would be an especially interesting occasion to me be- 
cause my grandfather, Thomas Long, who moved to Maine in 1S06, was 
for some years prior thereto an attendant at worship in that church. 
My father was then six years old. His surviving sister, my aunt, tells me 
that she vividly remembers the interest with which she often listened to 
her father and mother describing their former life and associations in 
Middleboro. 

I fear I shall be out of the State in August, but if I am at home I shall 
bear your kind invitation in mind. 

Very truly yours, 

John D. Long. 

The congregation then sang a hymn composed for the 
occasion to the tune, " America," and was dismissed with the 
benediction by Rev. C. W. Wood, and an organ postlude 
"Dona nobis" (Mozart). 



A dinner was served in the chapel at six o'clock, and about 
four hundred friends accepted the invitation to partake, Mr. 
John M. Carter's Middleboro Band furnishing music. 



The evening exercises of Monday opened with an organ 
prelude, "Triumphal March, Damascus," from the oratorio 
of " Naaman," by Costa ; followed by an anthem " The Lord is 
great" {J. B. Herbert). 

The President of the Day. — It is said that the prevailing 
sin of aged men is vanity. Perhaps an old church like ours is 
inclined to the same besetting sin. Yet, if ever that fault is 
pardonable, I am sure it is so in the case of a church which 
has so much reason as the First Church has to be proud of her 
three blooming daughters. I take pleasure in calling upon the 
pastor of the oldest of our daughters to speak to us, — Mr. 
Ellms, of Halifax. 



MR. ELLMS'S ADDRESS 99 



ADDRESS OF REV. LOUIS ELLMS 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : In speaking a 
word in behalf of the oldest daughter of this venerable church, in 
whose spacious meeting-house we are now happily assembled, 
we are gratified to recal several facts. Of these the first is 
that you sent to us, in 1734, a number of remarkable men and 
women to furnish the beginning of our history. Among these 
original members was Ebenezer Fuller, grandson of your first 
pastor ; other examples were Ebenezer Cobb, who lived to the 
advanced age of one hundred and eight years ; and Thomas 
Thompson, whose father, John, was ancestor of all the thousands 
of Thompsons in this country. 

It gives us pleasure to remember that your offspring was 
able to be of use to you. It is by no means forgotten that 
at a certain critical time in your early history you were 
helped and ably defended by Rev. John Cotton, who was the 
first pastor of the church in Halifax. It is well known, 
furthermore, that the lost records of this First Church for the 
period 1694 to 1708 were providentially restored to you, in 
1826, by an ancient copy prepared by Ebenezer Fuller of 
Halifax, and possessed by his great-grandson. 

Our record, we are glad to tell you, — and it is well preserved, 
— is, in its great facts, the same as that of the parent church. 
The church in Halifax has ever adhered to the great gospel 
principles on wdiich it was originally established. It has, I 
believe, never failed of an honored evangelical ministry. And 
through the years it has always been blest in having a suitable 
place in which to worship God. 

Representing, as I trust I do, those gathered for the 
Master in Halifax, most gladly and most heartily do I bring 
you greeting on this glorious day of j^ours. 



100 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

The President of the Day. — Another daughter church is 
represented here to-night, the one youngest and nearest to us. 
In January, 1847, so our church records say, there was dis- 
cussed a movement for " a colony church " at the " Four 
Corners," "in terms of caution and deep seriousness." In 
February a " small " meeting of eighteen brethren and seven- 
teen sisters prayed over the matter, and chose a committee 
to consider the likelihood of permanent support for the pro- 
posed new church, and also the prospect of the subsequent 
sustaining of worship here in that event. You know the rest. 
The daughter was l)orn in INIarch, and the mother still lives, 
each rejoicing in the other's prosperity. Cft this daughter, 
whose home has always been so near to the maternal nest, one 
might affectionatel}^ speak in the language of the brilliant 

Roman poet — 

" O matre pulclira filia pulchrior! " 

I am happy now to present the pastor of the Central Church 
in this town, Mr. Woodbridge. 



ADDRESS OF REV. R. G. WOODBRIDGE 

Mr. President and Friends : It is recorded that Dean 
Swift once preached a sermon on "Pride." He opened his 
sermon by saying, " There are four kinds of pride, my friends : 
pride of birth, pride of fortune, pride of beauty, and pride of 
intellect. I will speak to you of the first three ; as for the 
fourth, I shall say nothing of that, there being no one among 
you who can possibly be accused of so reprehensible a fault." 
I think that if the good dean were present to-night he would 
add one other point to his sermon, and that, " pride of old 
aoe," and with ail the wit and eloquence at his command he 
would seek to justify and commend it. Old people are proud 
of their years, and young people are proud of the aged, espe- 
cially when their lives have been marked all along the way by 
usefulness and honor. 

It was my good fortune to know an old mother in Israel 
who lived to be ninety-nine years of age. She was proud of 
her lineage, proud of her eventful history, proud of her attain- 



MR. WOODBEIDGE'S ADDEE8S 101 

ments, proud of the evidences of the Divine Hand and the 
Divine guidance through the years, proud that she was nearly- 
one hundred years old. She lived with her children and with 
her grandchildren, and they too were justly proud of the 
good old mother. On days when special company was ex- 
pected in the home, they did not hustle the old lady off to 
some back chamber, and keep her out of sight. But they 
drest her in her best silk dress, and put upon her her daintiest 
cap, and she was the hostess of that occasion, and the center 
of attention and attraction for all. It was an inspiration and 
a blessing to sit in the good old lady's presence and to hear 
her tell of the wondrous thinos God had done for her throush 
the years. 

And as I stand here to-night, dear friends, to represent the 
daughter of this grand old mother, " the First Congregational 
Church of Middleboro," I can say for her daughter, whose 
name is " Central," that we are justly proud of her fulness of 
years. We are proud of her godly history. We are proud 
of the manifestations of the Divine favor that have been hers 
all through the years. We are proud of being present to help 
celebrate this two hundredth anniversary. 

We stand here to-night, dear friends, proud of our lineage. 
We come from good stock. It is the blood of a royal priest- 
hood that runs in our veins. It is the blood of saints and 
martyrs, and the blessings wrought out by their heroism and 
sacrifices have become a part of our life, and the portion of 
our heritage. We are glad as a church that we can go back 
by so straight and direct a route to Plymouth Rock. We are 
proud of the Pilgrim faith ; we are proud of the Pilgrim 
character ; we are proud of the Pilgrim conscience ; we are 
proud of the Pilgrim perseverance. It is because our mother 
possessed these virtues so richly that we, her daughter, have 
such an abundant life and prosperity in this, our day. The 
life you poured so generously into our veins, dear friends, in 
1847, was pure, true. Christian. It was the quality of that 
life that shaped, strengthened, and sanctified ours, and for 



102 FIEST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

which we are profouudlj^ grateful. If the quality of the life 
of the twenty who founded this church, and the quality of the 
life of the thirty-three that you gave to us, had been less pure 
and less Christian, our life to-day would be less fruitful, and 
there would be less power in it, too, for the kingdom of God. 

Daniel Webster was in the habit, as some of 3'ou remember, 
of taking his children once a year up into New Hampshire to 
show them an old log cabin that once stood mid New Hamp- 
shire wilds and New Hampshire snowdrifts, that they might 
remember, by gazing upon it, the debt that they owed to 
former generations. One day, as he stood before the old log 
cabin, he was moved in soul by the very thought of what he 
too owed his ancestors. He said, " When I forget their labors 
and their sacrifices, may my name be blotted out from the 
memory of mankind!" And so, loyally and lovingly would 
the Central Church keep in her mind the memory of the labor 
and the sacrifices that have brought to her not only life but 
continual prosperity. 

We are justly proud, too, dear friends, of the fact that the 
Lord has written over the portals of this church in letters of 
light, so that the w^orldmay read, if it wdll, these words : "The 
Church of Jesus Christ." There are a great many people 
to-day who are looking for that Church as never before. They 
believe that the Lord Christ has but one Church in the world, 
and they want to find it, and to feel its influence. They do 
not care so much to-day about what material the church is 
built of, wdiether it is built of wood, or brick, or stone, or 
canvas. They do not care so much as to the form of worship 
that the church engages in, whether men kneel in prayer, or 
stand, as in the former da3's, or sit, in reverential mood. All 
that is a matter to them of small importance. Nor do they 
care, I think, — I honestly confess it, and rejoice in it, — 
whether the church is orthodox or heterodox ; whether it was 
born yesterday, or the da}^ before, goes back in unbroken suc- 
cession to Wesley, or Luther, or Augustin, or Peter ; whether 
it belono-s to a denomination that is weak or to a denomination 



MR. WOODBRIDGE's ADDRESS 103 

that is strong. But what men do care for, as never before in 
the Church's history, is the Church that bears clearly and 
unmistakably upon it the name of the Lord and Savior Jesus 
Christ. 

We boast sometimes of our denominationalism. We write 
above our doors " Congregational," or "Baptist," or "Metho- 
dist," or " Episcopal," and these words have absolutely no power 
over the outside world to lead them to worship the Father. 
But when you can put up the name " Congregational " (as some 
of these changeable signs are put up on the street), so that as 
you look upon the word you read the name of the denomina- 
tion, and then looking at it at another angle read, " Our Lord 
and Savior Jesus Christ," then we have put up a name that 
touches the outside world as well as those who l)elieve, and 
that lifts them up into the image and the likeness of Jesus 
Christ. It is as Jesus himself promised, " And I, if I be lifted 
up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." One of the 
hopeful signs of the times to me is that the people are crying 
out as never before, "None Init Christ; no word but his word, 
no works but his works, no Church but his Church." 

Now tell me, how are we going to distinguish, in this day 
and generation, the Church of Jesus Christ from the churches 
that are not Jesus Christ's? Shall we point to our pedigree, 
and say : " Behold ! the church at the Green, Plymouth Rock, 
Leyden, Scrool)y, Pentecost, Jesus Christ " ? Behold the 
line in unl)roken continuity ! No, no ! there is a better way 
than that. It is the way of this l)eloved church, the way of the 
Master. " By their fruits ye shall know them." Look back 
in the history of this church, and what do you see? A claim? 
You see the claim, and the confirmation of the claim. God 
has put his seal upon this church, and owned it as the Church 
of Jesus Christ. The Pentecostal blessings, dear friends, 
that have come to this church through these two centuries bind 
this company of redeemed souls to the company that waited 
in the upper room in the long ago, upon whose heads rested 
the tongues of flame, and bind them also to Christ, who said : 



104 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

"Wait in Jerusalem for my blessing." Out from that room, 
you will remember, the noise went abroad into the city there- 
about, until the multitude came to hear of the wonderful words 
and wonderful works of the Lord. And only last night we 
were reminded that out from this room the same sound went 
forth until those living sixteen miles away heard, and came 
here to learn of the river of life, and to drink from its refresh- 
ing stream, and to go home rejoicing in newness of life. It is 
these evidences of apostolic power, these evidences of the in- 
dwelling and abiding Christ, that stamp upon this church 
indelibly the name : " The Church of Jesus Christ." By its fruit 
this church, during the past centuries, has proved itself to be 
the Church of the Lord, bought by his blood, preserved by his 
power, filled by his spirit and life, and, blessed be God, still 
alive with his regenerating power. 

There is a story of a Japanese magician who stood once 
before an amazed assembly, doing very wonderful things. He 
took a flower-pot ; he filled it with earth ; he put into the 
earth a seed ; and then, before the eager eyes he began to fan 
the mold that contained the seed, and the earth was seen to 
break, and little leaves to appear. The little shoot grew and 
grew before the astonished spectators, until it became a bush, 
budded, blossomed, and the magician picked off the blossoms 
and gave them to those who were near to him. Skilful hands 
on the yesterday and to-day have been doing for us precisely 
what the Japanese magician did for his spectators. We have 
seen the earth, and the Divine seed planted in it, and the earth 
breaking, and God's seed growing, and the bush, and the bud, 
and the blossom, and the fruit, — the fruit, redeemed hosts, and 
mighty influences that still are in the world, pointing the way, 
even as John the Baptist pointed the way at the Jordan, to the 
Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. 

I would, dear friends, that we might focus our thought on 
that picture, and that we might carry home the one great 
truth that the picture emphasizes : this church and work are of 
the Lord God omnipotent. 



MR. WOODBEIDGE'S ADDRESS 105 

Then I want to say, in the third place, that we are proud of 
the fact that, though two hundred years old, this church has not 
outlived its usefulness. There came once to a town a stranger, 
and he inquired carefully for the minister of the parish. The 
parsonage was pointed out, and the minister gave him audi- 
ence, and he told his story in a few words. His mother was 
dead ; she was born in that town, and tlie desire of her heart 
for many years had ])een that she might be taken home to her 
birthplace, and put with the friends of her childhood in the old 
cemetery. The kindly servant of the Lord expressed his 
sympathy for the sorrow that had come to this one at the loss 
of a mother, and the man, full-grown and independent of 
mother's care now, said : "Well, you see, it is no great loss to 
us ; our mother was very old ; she had been a burden to her- 
self and to others for a great many years, and though we shall 
be sorry to say good-by to her, there is a great sense of relief 
now that it has come, for she had outlived her usefulness." 
And there are a great many who think just in that way about 
old people and old institutions. It may be, dear friends, that 
some of you, as you have listened to these grand things that 
have been said about the past and its glories, feel in regard to 
this church : " It is all in the {rdst : this church, like that good 
mother, has " outlived her usefulness." I cannot think so. I 
want to sa}^ with all the earnestness and thoughtfulness and 
deliberateness of which I am capable, that I believe that this 
church has still a great work to do ; a work in the present as 
important, nay, more important, than any work that has been 
done in this community during the past two hundred years. 

The conditions in which this church works have been materi- 
ally changed through the years, but the need of its earnest 
and sanctified labors w^as never greater in the past than it is in 
the present. If this were the last service of a dead church, 
dear friends, Ave should need to go home with hearts heavy and 
sorrowful. Here is a great community about us, needing the 
lio'ht and the salvation of Jesus Christ, and needing it from 
this church as a center. Suppose the usefulness of this church 



106 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

were all in the past. What would Ijecome of these scattered 
homes, one hundred and fifty or two hundred of them in the 
radius of this church, that need to-day the earnest and the 
sanctified ministry of the First Congregational Church of 
Middleboro ? 

I was thinking only just after supper that if there had been 
no church building here, nor organization, when the fathers 
were here, they had enough of pure and undefiled religion to 
have the church of God in their homes, where the church 
started in the beginning. But there are lots of families near 
this church who have no such godly heritage, and unless the 
light of this church shines out full and clear, and the love of 
these earnest, consecrated brethren here is continually exer- 
cised in their behalf, these must go down to death unknown of 
Christ and unloved of him. 

During the past years, my friends, you have given largely 
of your life to make others strong. This you will undoubt- 
edly do in the days to come, liut you will not forget, though 
that kind of work is discouraging, that that too is God's work. 
But for the pure and consecrated life of the years gone by, the 
Central Church could not have been, and the church at Halifax 
could not have been, and the church in North Middleboro could 
not have been. And but for your pure and consecrated life in 
the present, other germs cannot develop, and other powers 
shall not go on working with the Father for the redemption of 
the world. We are proud because your usefulness is not all 
in the past, because opportunities for usefulness press upon 
you from every side. And we pray tonight, as those who owe 
you a great debt, that the same God who has been with you, 
guiding and blessing you, and making you useful in days past, 
will still l)e with you to guide and bless and make a'ou useful 
in the days to come. May those who have received from you 
so richly and abundantly never be so wrapt up in themselves 
that they shall forget how great a debt they owe to the mother 
church. When we do forget the debt we owe to you, and 
others like you, may our name be blotted out from the 
memory of mankind. 



LETTER FROM MR. JOB 107 

The following letter from the pastor of a daughter church 
in North Middleboro was read : — 

Manomet, Mass., Aug. 24, 1894. 

Dear Bro. Stearns, — I should be most happy to be with you on your 
interesting anniversary occasion, and I realize that I shall miss much 
in not being with you. ... I am very sorry not to be. . . . 

I trust that in every way your celebration may be successful. The 
grand old mother church has done a noble work in the past, and has 
still a mission in these stirring times at the close of this wonderful cen- 
tury, and in an age to come still more remarkable. I am sure that all 
the members of the daughter church at North Middleboro join me in 
sentiments of respect and fellowship, and in the hope that the church 
may be abundantly blest, and that you may be cheered and refreshed 
by the precious ft-uits that shall be gathered in the days to come. 
Though absent in person, my thoughts and prayers will be with you on 
the day of the celebration, and on many other days. May God bless 
you and abide with you all. 

Yours in Christian love, 

HERBERT K. JOB. 



Mrs. G. A. Cox read some humorous descriptive verses. ^ 
An anthem by the choir was next rendered : " It is a good 
thing to give thanks" (J. B. Herbert). 



Mr. L. F. Millet, Secretar}^ of the Middleboro Young Men's 
Christian Association, was the next speaker. He made a l)rief 
address, uttering some kind words relative to the share which 
the First Church had taken in the interdenominational work 
that he represented. It is regretted that by accident no full 
report was made of this address. 

1 See the Middleboro Gazette, September 7. 



108 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

The President of the Day. — Many of you interested in 
Old Colony chronicles may recal that one of our earliest and 
honored members was Jonathan Cobb. I discover in this 
goodly congregation one of his descendants in the fifth genera- 
tion from whom we should all greatly like to hear. Therefore, 
in your behalf, I take pleasure in asking Mr. Henry E. Cobb, 
of Boston, to address us. 



ADDRESS OF MR. HENRY E. COBB 

Mr. President : I have been thinking that if those grass- 
green graves in yonder burial-place should give up their 
tenants in all their life and strength, and they could come in 
here and sit in these seats, and hear the well-won eulogiums 
which we have pronounced upon them, the blush of conscious 
nipdesty would rise on their cheeks at once. They would raise 
their hands in deprecation of our estimate of their lives and 
work — these heroes, martyrs, saints! 

They were but humble. God-fearing, earnest men. They 
came here to conquer this wilderness, to plant here the com- 
mon school, and the church, and the state, with no under- 
standing or idea beyond the one or two generations that were 
to come. They builded better than they knew. 

The great Architect had a work for them in foundation- 
laying, and they laid their foundations in eternal verities. 
They laid those foundations broad and deep, building into 
them principles of right which should last throughout the ages. 
And now we, their children of the seventh generation, have 
builded upen those foundations. They were unconscious 
heroes, martyrs, saints. God has a work for each one of us 
to do, and we too may be heroes, martyrs, saints, just as we do 
in earnest purpose, with a God-fearing intent, whatever God 
places in our hands to do. And future generations may arise 
and call us blessed if we, with the same faithfulness, and 
earnestness, and devotion, and self-denial, do the duties that 
come to our hand. 



LETTER FROM PRESIDENT GATES 109 

These flowers may fade ; the echoes of the eloquence and of 
the music of to-day and to-night will finally die away. The 
Church of the living Grod, planted by the forefathers, will then 
remain. Are you to be heroes, martyrs, saints? You can be 
as they were. Generations yet unborn may rise up and call 
jou blessed. 



The following letter was read from the president of Amherst 
College, who had been invited to speak in Ijehalf of education. 

Bethlehem, N. H,, Aug. 22, 1894. 
Kev. G. W. Stearns, 

My Bear Sir, — It would give me great pleasure to be with you on the 
27th were it possible, and to add to the many words of congratula- 
tion which the Middleboro Church will hear on that day, a word from 
Amherst College. But I am established with my family here in the 
mountains, and our plans for the next two weeks are such as to put 
it out of my power to be present on your two hundredth anniversary. 

Who knows the Christians who have been the true " pillars of the 
church " during these two hundred years? The historian of the occasion 
will mention or refer to certain families and a few prominent men whom 
the world has looked upon as sustaining the church. But is it not alto- 
gether probable that, seen as God sees the record of our church history, 
it has been some silent, deep-souled, praying woman, poor perhaps as 
she who threw her all into the treasury while the Lord " sat over 
against " it, and told his people how great a gift were the two mites, — 
some one of God's own children who serve him and pray to him " in 
secret " even more than in public, who has been the real power prevail- 
ing with God and bringing blessings upon the church, in the years when 
the statistician and the historian have found the wealth and the influ- 
ence of the church in far different personalities among its membership? 

That your church may abound in those who have power in prayer with 
God, and in these coming years may, by its living works, reflect the glory 
of our Father in heaven more and more clearly, is my wish for you. 

Yours very truly, 

Merrill E. Gates. 



110 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

In the absence of the pastor of the Central Baptist Church 
of Middleboro, who was to speak in behalf of our sister de- 
nominations, the following telegram from him was read : 

Woods Hole, Aug. 27. 
Rev. G. W. Stearns : 

Accept my sincerest congratulations. Read Psalm one hundred and 

twenty-six. 

M. r. Johnson. 

The congregation listened to a part of the Psalm referred 
to : " The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are 
glad," etc. 

The exercises were then enlivened by some original and 
amusing stanzas which were read by Mr. William Pratt. 



MR. boomer's address 111 

The President of the Day. — All blessings this side of 
Heaven must end. While our hearts are still stirred by the 
inspiring words that have l)een spoken to-day and yesterday, 
we are loth to give up our attempt, vain though Ave know 
it is — 

" To chase the glowing hours with flying feet." 

Ere we close these commemorative exercises, and go forth 
with our high hopes for coming days and years, let us enjoy 
one more address. The First Church of Middleboro, like 
Virginia, mother of presidents, forgets not her children even 
after they have left her side. I am glad to be al)le to call now 
upon one of our loyal sons, the last speaker of the evening, 
Mr. B. L. Boomer, of Brockton. 



ADDRESS OF MR. B. L. BOOMER 

Mr. President and Friends : The l)urden of my thought at 
this time is good Father Putnam — and what an overwhelm- 
ing burden it is I Such a multitude of precious and delightful 
recollections of one we all loved so much, that I scarcely know 
where to begin : Ijut justly taking precedence of all subsequent 
things, — he gave me my wife, and I may date the beginning of 
my acquaintance with him and his family from this event. 
" Come at two o'clock this afternoon, and I will be happy to 
serve you " went his neat little note in answer to my inquir3^ 

How well we remember all his quiet ways ; never loud, 
never bustling, never in a hurry, yet never staying too long ; 
never forgetting aught of spiritual or worldly matters pertain- 
ing to those he visited, — the crops, the weather, the horse, 
the boy, all had a place, — and after he had asked Goa's blessing 
upon the household and so spryly regained his chaise, we 
looked after him with a feelino; that he had left a blessing and 
a benediction in the house. 

Passing some quiet 1iut fruitful years, we come to an impor- 
tant event, not only in his life, but in that of all who for so 
many long years had known Dr. Putnam only as minister, 
and as the occupant of the parsonage, where his stamp and 



112 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

device and most gentle individuality gave to the place such an 
odor of quiet and welcome that we thought it never could be 
otherwise. But the change came, and with it commenced a 
much more intimate acquaintance l^etween us. Some of you 
rememl^er what a time, reaching over weeks, it consumed to 
tear up, pull out, make let go, and carry away so many things 
that for more than thirty years had l)een rooting themselves to 
the dear old place. I often have wondered how he so bravely 
endured the making of a new home ; how interested he was in 
the arrangements and repairs, and the brightening up of the 
quite famous old house which seemed saved providentially for 
him. How carefully every old familiar ])ook took its proper 
place in the stately parlor which was thenceforth to l)e his 
library and study, and in how surprisingly short time he 
adapted himseK to the new surroundings. 

Durino- this settling in the new home I was, as a friend and 
neio-hbor, often with the family. I shall never forget how 
the heartiness of his blessing at the table affected me. With 
his face toward Heaven, his voice strong and clear, his simple 
irrace seemed like a grand burst of praise and thanksgiving to 
God his Father. 

Presently age and its infirmities laid a heav}^ hand upon him 
we loved so well, and in that quiet upper chamber the good 
man waited the summons of his Friend. 

Among the most precious experiences of my life, I chiefly 
prize my many opportunities to be with him in the capacity of 
watcher, for there was much pleasantness between us. He had 
varvino- moods — sometimes quiet, silent, unnoticing, again 
smiling, happy, and jubilant ; then, perhaps, waking from a 
restless sleep, he would be in great distress of mind. Once, 
in this condition at midnight, a great grief came upon him, 
resulting, as I supposed, from some unhappy train of thought 
he could not control. His agitation I quieted as I could ; and 
holding fast my hands he told me that for hours he had been 
thinking over his past life, and had found himself overwhelmed 
with a feeling of his unworthiness, considering his long life 



MR. boo]mer's address 113 

and abundant opportunities. I told him that One would be his 
judge who was full of mercy and compassion ; who knew all 
the thoughts and intents of his heart, and that He would l)e 
much more merciful to him than he was to himself. Growing- 
more calm, and taking some refreshment, he commenced the 
story of his college life, particularly the incident when, con- 
vinced of a privilege he believed was his right and that of his 
fellow-students at Cambridge, he with the rest had been sus- 
pended and the case referred to higher authorities ; how he 
passed sleepless nights and days ; with what anxiety he waited ^ 
the cominof of the staae from Boston which was to brino- 
either his vindication or his disgrace, and his thankfulness when 
acquitted by the Faculty and his action approved, which was to 
be in the nature of a precedent, contri))uting to the liberty of 
those coming after. In the depth of his trouble and anxiety, 
he said he read and read again the thirty-fourth Psalm, and it 
had become to him a great consolation ; and many times during 
these still hours, with many others, I read it to him. A very 
notable bit of his early history he related. While in the office 
of his uncle. Judge Putnam, of Salem, there came into the har- 
bor the ship having on lioard the first missionaries sent out by 
the American Board to any foreign land, in 1812. To meet 
these devoted people, and to bid them God-speed, many of the 
prominent people of all that region went on board the evening 
preceding the day of their sailing. A most powerful assur- 
ance of the presence and blessing of God was felt by all on 
board, and that evening was spent in fervent prayers, songs, 
and encouraging words, succeeded by tears and solemn fare- 
wells. The absolute self-sacritice of that historic company, 
going they knew not where, but trusting to God alone to 
direct the way, so impressed the would-be " lawyer Putnam " 
that within twenty-four hours he decided to give up his studies 
with his uncle and prepare himself to be a minister of Christ — 
with what success let us fall back to his devoted and exem- 

' At Hanover, N. H., having left Harvard for Dartmouth College at the end 
of Sophomore year. See the funeral sermon by Dr. H. M. Dexter. 



114 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

plary life, and to a myriad of tender and precious memories 
for answer. The good man, the kind friend, the wise coun- 
selor, the genial companion, was carried by loving hands to a 
place appointed for all the living, and, as again and again we 
visit it, we feel that the remembrance of the good can never 
die. 



In behalf of the church, at the close of Mr. Boomer's 
address, the pastor added a few words of appreciation of the 
large share of pleasure contributed by the many guests to the 
occasion, and was about to announce the closing hymn, when 
Eev. E. G. Woodbridge and Kev. N. T. Dyer proposed a 
resolution of thanks to the church for its hospitality. The 
audience kindly passed such a vote of thanks to their enter- 
tainers, after which all joined in the hymn, 

" Blest be the tie that binds 

Our hearts in Christian love," 

to the tune " Dennis," and the bicentennial commemorative ex- 
ercises were closed with the benediction by the pastor, and 
the "Festival March" {G. Blessner) rendered on the organ. 



CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES. 115 



CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES 

(Continued from Church Book o/1854) 

1728-9 Revival ; 42 added. 

1829 Chapel erected. 

1832 Parsonage built. 

1851 Nov. 8 Bell. 

1855 Meeting-house frescoed. 

1866 Feb. Rev. Rufus Morrill Sawyer came. 

Reed organ given by Abishai Miller. 

1867 Revival ; 92 added on confession of faith. 
Chapel remodeled. 
Pr. I. W. Putnam died, aged 81^. 
Mr. Saw^^er dismissed. 
Rev. Ephraim Nelson Hidden came. 
Mr. Sawyer died in LeMars, Iowa, aged 52. 
Mr. Hidden left. 

Rev. Theophilus Parsons Sawin came. 
Revival ; 35 added. 
Rev. Nathan Tirrell Dyer came ; ordained 

July 31. 

Steam heat in meeting-house. 

Mr. Hidden died in E. Medway ; aged 70. 

Rev. Howard Alcott Hanaford came. 

Mr. Sawin died in Medford, aged nearly 69. 

Pipe organ. 

Christian Endeavor Society organized. 

Rev. Josiah Weare Kingsbury came. 

Rev. Georo-e Warren Stearns came. 

Furnace in Parsonage. 

Grading and improvements around meeting- 
house. 



1868 May 


3 


1869 Nov. 


10 


Dec. 




1872 Nov. 


29 


1874 April 


[ 


Nov. 




1877 




1878 April 


L 


1880 Nov. 


28 


1885 Dec. 


1 


1886 Jan. 


19 


1887 




1888 




1889 Feb. 




1891 Nov. 


1 


1892 




1894 





116 



FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 






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BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 117 



BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES CONCERNING PASTORS 
8 Rev. ISRAEL WARBLTRTON PUTNAM, D. D. 

Born in Danvers, Mass. 178G Nov. 24, son of Eleazer, and 
Sarah (Fuller). Studied at Franklin Academy, N. Andover ; 
Harvard College 1805-7; Dartmouth College 1807-9. Read 
law two and a half years under Judge Samuel Putnam in 
Salem, Mass. Andover Theological Seminary 1812 April to 
1814 Sept. Ordained 1815 North Church, Portsmouth, N. H. 
Married in 1815 Miss Harriet Osgood. She died in 1832. 
Children : Charles Israel, Samuel Osgood, Edward Warren, 
Francis Brown, Harriet Osgood, Horace Morse, William Fuller, 
Julia Maria, Lucy Macintosh ; of whom the second, fifth and 
ninth alone survive. Married in 1833 Mrs. Juliana Oso-ood 
{nee Osgood, the widow of first wife's brother). Her children 
were: Samuel Warburton (born 1815 May 7, died Aug. 7, 
next child bearing the same name), Mary Augusta, Adeline 
Hamilton, Charles Edward, and Julia Henrietta who alone sur- 
vives. Mrs. Juliana Putnam died 1871 Feb. 10. 

Pastor of First Church, Middleboro, Mass. 1835 Oct. 2d> to 
1865. Degree of D.D. from Dartmouth College in 1853. 
Died 1868 May 3 in the house on Plymouth street now the 
home of Mr. Sylvanus Tinkham. 



9 Rev. RUFUS MORRILL SAWYER 

Born in Otisfield, Me. 1820 Sept. 1, son of Jeremiah, and 
Lydia (Morrill). Studied in Gorham and other academies. 
Graduated at Bangor Seminary 1851. Ordained pastor at 
Winthrop, Me. 1851 ; 1859 called to Great Falls, N. H. ; 1860 
York, Me. ; 1866 First Church, Middleboro, Mass., moving to 
Iowa in 1869 to gain health. Preached in Iowa City, and Ana- 
mosa, and in July 1872 moved to LeMars. Having hardly 
recovered from typhoid fever, he died of consumption 1872 



118 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

Nov. 29. He had married in 1851 Miss Sophia Blake of Otis- 
fiekl. Children: Silas B., Julia, Clara, Susan, Charles L., 
William, and Lizzie ; all living except second and sixth. 
Mrs. Sawyer died of pneumonia 1891 Nov. 21, aged 70. 

10 Kev. EPHRAIM XELSON HIDDEI^ 

Born in Tamworth, N. H. 1810 Aug. 28, son of Ephraim, and 
Dorothy (Remick). Student at Phillips Exeter Academy. 
Graduated at Dartmouth College 1836, and Gilmanton Theolog- 
ical Seminary 1840. Taught in Gilmanton Academy 1836-40. 
Married Mary Elizabeth Parsons of Gilmanton 1840 Aug. 28. 
Ordained in Deerfield, N. H. 1841 ; installed Milford 1849 ; 
First Church, Derry 1857 ; Candia 1859 ; Great Falls, Somers- 
worth 1865 ; First Church, Middleboro, Mass. 1869 ; Edgar- 
town 1874; Norfolk 1875. Residence in last years at Millis 
(formerly E. Medway), and died there suddenly with heart 
disease 1880 Nov. 28. Children: Fanny, and Emily P., 
neither surviving. Mrs. Hidden is living (1895) in Milford, 
N. H. 

11 Rev. THEOPHILUS PARSONS SAWIN 

Born in Natick, Mass. 1817 Feb. 4, son of Bela, and Becca 
(Barber). Student at Phillips Academy, Andover. Studied 
theology with Parsons Cook, D.D. in Lynn. Married Martha 
Mclntyre Mason 1838 Jan. 1. Ordained 1843 in Saugus ; 
installed 1850 at Harwich. City missionary, Manchester, N. H. 
1851-6 and 1866-9. Pastor at Brookline, N. H. 1856-66; 
Revere, Mass. 1869 ; First Church, Middleboro, 1875 Jan. ; 
Lyndeboro, N. H. 1878-85. Died in Medford, Mass. 1886 
Jan. 19. Mrs. Sawin died in Bedford, Mass. 1895 March 8. 
Children: T. P. jr., James, Chapin, Lura S., William M. 

12 Rev. N'ATHAN TIRRELL DYER 

Born in Braintree, Mass. 1852 Jan. 1, son of Jacob S., and 
Ann Maria Thayer (Holl)rook) . Graduated at Lawrence Acad- 



BIOGEAPHICAL NOTES 119 

emy, Groton, 1869 ; Dartmouth College 1873 ; Andover Theo- 
logical Seminary 1876. Four months' service in Swanton, 
Vt. interrupted by a year of illness. Three months in Orange, 
Mass. ; First Church, Middleboro, 1878 July 31, resigning in 
July 1885, Sickness of two and a half years, Dighton 1887 
Jan, 1 ; Medfield since 1890. Married Harriet Mann of Frank- 
lin 1878 June 4. Children : Cora Ethel, and Perley Bradford 
(died 1884 Sept. 20). 

13 Rev. HOWARD ALCOTT HANAFORD 

Born in Nantucket, Mass. 1851 Dec, 31, son of Dr. J. H., and 
Rev. Phelie A. (Coffin) . Educated in public schools of Beverly 
and Reading ; Dean Academy, Franklin ; Antioch College, 
Ohio ; graduated Tufts College Divinity School, Mass. 1873. 
Held acting-pastorates as a Universalist 1873-8 in Shirley and 
Wellfleet ; also Little Falls, N. Y. Congregational pastor 
since 1877 in Nantucket and Bedford, Mass. Came to Middle- 
boro 1885 Dec. 1. Pastor in Winchester, N, H, since summer 
of 1888, Married Mary Weston Landerkin of WeMeet 1874 
Nov, 4. Children : Charles Leonard and Maria Mitchell. 

14 Rev. JOSIAH WEARE KmOSBURY 

Born in Underbill, Vt. 1838 Oct. 2, son of Rev. Samuel, and 
Mary (Babcock) . Fitted for college at Phillips Exeter Acad- 
emy. Graduated at Dartmouth College 1862 ; Presbyterian 
Theological Seminar}^ Princeton, N. J. 1865. U. S. Sanitary 
Commission 1865. Ordained, after preaching a year, at 
Queechee, Vt. 1866. Preached in N. Woodstock, Ct., Bidde- 
ford. Me., N. Reading, and Montague, Mass. ; also Rye, N. H., 
W. Charleston (and Derby), Vt., Deerlield, N. H., Chichester 
(and Short Falls), N. H. First Church, Middleboro, Mass. 
1889 April 10; dismissed 1891 Oct. 19. Residence Braintree. 
Married 1865 Oct. 2, Mary H. Jackson, of Tamworth, N. H. 
Children: William J., Joseph J., Samuel, George D., Mabel 
H., M. Lizzie, Noah J., Grace E. 



120 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

15 Rev. GEORGE WARREN STEARNS 
Born in Windham, Ct, 1856 Dec. 24, son of Eev. George I., 
and Amelia D. (Jones). Student Derby Academy, Hingham, 
Mass. and W. C. Wilkinson's school, Tarrytown, N. Y. Grad- 
uated Phillips Academy, Andover 1874 ; Amherst College 1878 ; 
And over Theological Seminary 1881. Preached during sum- 
mer of 1880 in Albany, Me. Acting pastor 1881-5 in Patten 
(and Island Falls) , Me. Ordained Patten 1883. First Church, 
Hadley, Mass. 1885-7 ; Acton 1887-91 ; First Church, Mid- 
dleboro since 1891 Nov. 1. Married Sarah Elizabeth Dow 
1887 Oct. 21. Children: Roswel and Pauline. 

ADDITIONAL NOTES OF PORTRAITS 

JOSHUA EDDY (633 on church roll) was born 1748 IVlay 
5 in Middleboro. Served in American Army 1775-8, being a 
captain ; after the war he engaged in iron-manufacturing, etc. 
Joined First Church 1797. Deacon from 1806. Married 
Lydia Paddock. Died 1833 May 1. 

ZECHARIAH EDDY (718) was second son of the above 
named, being born 1780 Dec. 6 in Middleboro. Graduated at 
Brown University 1799. Married 1803 Sarah Edson. Ad- 
mitted to the bar 1806, to the church 1808, and became an 
eminent lawyer. Died 1860 Feb. 14. 

THOMAS WESTON (834) born 1770 Sept. 20, joined this 
church 1823. Married Abigail Doggett. Merchant, Judge of 
the Court of Sessions, and prominent in public life. Died 
1834 June 17. 

THOMAS WESTON (1066) grandson of the last named, 
was born in Middleboro 1834 June 14. Joined First Church 
1853. Married Nellie S. Childs. Lawyer. Residence, New- 
ton. 

FRANCIS G. PRATT (1212) born in S. Maiden (now 
Everett), Mass., 1850 Aug. 8. Business Manager of the 
"Youth's Companion." Summer residence, Middleboro. Died 
in Boston 1894 Mar. 19. 





4 OJ?x^Zj (yO^^r^^i 




INDEX 



121 



INDEX TO THE FOLLOWING CATALOG 



Alden 

1142 George L 

1143 Marietta 

1193 Phebe A Fuller 

1194 Etta P Baldwin 
Atwood 

1176 Jacob 
Bagnall 

1291 Clara A 
Baldwin 

1194 Etta P Alden 
Bennett 

1163 John 
1240 Grover 

Bliss 
1158 Lucy S Bryant 

BOOMEK 

1190 Benjamin L 

1191 Rebecca C 
Bourne 

1324 Lucy W Thomas 
Bowman 

1326 Mary C Wood 

1360 Annie A Wood 

1362 Abram L 
Bradbury 

1389 Eleanor A 
Bradford 

1131 DeWitt G 

1132 LydiaR 
Brett 

1349 Irene B Pratt 
Bryant 

1055 Mercy E 

1145 Esther 8 

1154 Ira 

1158 Lucy S Bliss 

1164 Arad 

1165 Betsy J 

1166 Sarah E 

1181 Susan E Freeman 

1201 George F 

1202 Isaac jr 

1203 Irene 

1242 Lorin 

1243 LoisL 

1244 Rebecca 

1298 Roxana E Hagen 

1314 Addle A Penniman 

1331 MaryE 

1336 Charles M 

1337 Henry 8 

1338 Susan M 



Bump 

1204 James S 

1205 Huldah P 
Burgess 

1246 Amanda Penniman 
Butler 

1319 Samuel 8 
Caswell 

1088 Azubah Hood 

1090 Anna W Wood 
Chase 

1196 Sarah E Tinkham 
Clark 

1127 Helen E Williams 
1363 MabelleW 

Cobb 

955 Jane E Eddy 

1133 George E 

1134 Martha 
1198 Annie 

1206 Heman 

1207 Sarah B Smith 
Cody 

1395 Caroline F 
Coffin 
1136 Sarah B 

1339 Charles W 

1340 Henrietta K 
Conant 

1369 Fred A 
Cornish 
1101 Angeline F Thompson 

1110 Charles F 

1111 Mary L 
1163 Josiah T 

1292 Alice H 

1341 Herbert W 
Cos 

1293 George Alton 
1299 Clara A Hagen 

Crosby 

1188 William H 

1189 Maria A 

1342 Eudora F Dempsey 
Cross 

1365 Annie W Harwood 

CUSHMAN 

1128 Susan H Hambly 

1129 Lucy A Thompson 

1294 E Elizabeth Eddy 
Darling 

857 Lauretta A Fuller 
Deane 
987 Lois 



1117 Nancy D 
1318 Irene L Soule 

1332 LucyH 

1333 Mary E 

1343 EUaL 

1344 Albert 

1345 Florence 
1397 George A 

Dempsey 

1342 Eudora F Crosby 
Dexter 

llOS Mary F Wood 
Driggs 

1150 Leonard 

1295 Deborah L 

1296 Mary A 
Drinkwater 

1270 Betsy 
Dunham 

1370 Lura L 
Durpee 

1358 Lily H R A Thornton 
Dyer 

1320 Rev Nathan T 

1321 Harriet M 
Eddt 

955 Jane E Cobb 

970 Ann E Pratt 

988 Charlotte E 

1160 Susan M Thomas 

1161 William C 

1162 Anna C 
1208 Joshua M 
1252 W Osgood 

1273 Florence Jedermann 

1294 E Elizabeth Cushman 
Ellis 

1225 Abby L Vaughan 

1359 Rhoda S Waterman 
Fessenden 

1378 William P 

1379 Sabiua E 
1386 Edward W 
1400 Laura J 

Freeman 

972 Jane Tinkham 

1118 Harriet 

1177 Morton 

1178 Benjamin 

1179 Nancy C 

1180 Angeline E Howard 

1181 Susan E Bryant 

1182 Samuel 



122 



FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 



11S3 AnnaB 

1184 Henrietta 

1185 Andrew 

1315 Matilda R Simmons 
FuiiLBB 

857 Lauretta A Darling 

1193 Phebe A Alden 

1197 Lucy T 

1269 Mary H 

GiFFORD 

1241 Elizabeth H Haskins 

GiSBT 

1093 Olive E 

1112 Deborah' 

1272 Edward T 
Geat 

1126 Ellen W Thompson 
Gurnet 

1229 Charlotte H 
Haoen 

1230 Desire R 

1237 Harriet S Kendall 

1297 Mary P Smith 

1298 Roxana E Bryant 

1299 Clara A Cox 
Hamblt 

1128 Susan H Cushman 
Harlow 

1346 Reuben 

1364 Betsy 
Harwood 

1365 Annie W Cross 
Haskell 

1300 John T 
Haskins 

1155 Job R 

1241 Elizabeth H Gifford 
Hathawat 

1283 Ephraim 

1284 Isabella P 
Hidden 

1262 Rev Ephraim N 

1263 Mary E 

1264 Emily P 

HiGGINS 

1116 Mary Weston 
Howard 

1180 Angeline E Freeman 

12S5 Asaph E 
Ingalls 

1220 Elizabeth A Savery 
Jedermann 

1273 Florence Eddy 
Kendall 

1237 Harriet S Hagen 
Kingsbury 

1375 Rev Josiah W 

1376 MaryH 



1377 William J 

1380 Mabel H 
Leach 

1209 Jephthah 

1210 Giles 

1245 Anna E 

LiTTLEJOHN 

1148 Oraamus 

1238 Eliza 

1259 Elizabeth J 

1398 Ira O 

1399 Dorcas S 
McAllister 

1119 Amanda 
McCrillis 

1199 John 

1200 Sarah A 

1211 Mary E 
1274 Herbert O 
1348 Walter C 

McMann 

1322 John E 
Malloy 

1347 William F 
Morris 

1095 Betsy L Pratt 
Morse 

1281 Lucy A 

1301 Augusta W 

1302 John P 

1303 Fideha J 

1304 Lucy F 

MOULTON 

1249 Lydia A Raymond 
Nichols 

974 Lucia M 

1109 Lydia A Tinkham 

1167 James G 

1168 Susan M Thompson 

1381 Ethel G 

1391 Frank A 

1392 Mima W 
Osgood 

1113 Julia H 
Palmer 

1312 Susan Louise Thomas 
Pa BLOW 

1109 Lydia A Nichols 
Pease 

1214 Clara 
Penniman 

1130 Virtue M 

1231 Prince 

1246 Amanda Burgess 
1314 Addie A Bryant 
1373 Arabella 

Phillips 
1109 Lydia A Tinkham 



Phinney 

1366 Mary W 
Place 

1261 George H 
Pratt 

970 Ann E Eddy 

988 Charlotte E Eddy 

1095 Betsy L Morris 

1120 Rev Francis G 

1149 Simeon M 

1212 Francis G jr 

1213 George W 

1349 Irene B Brett 

1350 Irene S 
Putnam 

1086 Lucy M Thompson 
Raymond 

1247 Jerusha 

1248 Alexander 

1249 Lydia A Moulton 
1323 Samuel D 

1335 Frederic R 
Reynolds 

1151 Louise L Weston 
Ryan 

1367 Mary 
Ryder 

1384 Annie J 
Sampson 

1265 Thomas W 
Savery 

1084 RhodaJ 

1218 Albert Allen 

1219 Elizabeth T 

1220 Elizabeth A Ingalls 
1239 Everett W 

1267 Albert T 

1268 Maria S 
1305 Luther W 

Bawin 

1277 Rev Theophilus P 

1278 Martha M 

1279 Lura S 

1280 William M 
Sawyer 

1139 Rev Rufus M 

1140 Sophia B 

SCANLIN 

1286 John 

1287 Betsy B 
Shaw 

1095 Betsy L Morris 

1124 Eliza P Thompson 

1215 Ebenezer A 

1216 Sarah M 

1217 Relief 
1236 Deborah C 
1271 Sarah E 



INDEX 



123 



130" B Jennie Shurtleff 
1351 Charles A 
136S Betsy S 
Shurtleff 
1257 Lydia B Vaughan 
1288 Elizabeth H 

1306 Benjamin C 

1307 B Jennie Shaw 

1308 Cynthia A 
Simmons 

1315 Matilda R Freeman 
Smith 

1144 Mary A 

1207 Sarah B Cobb 

1232 James 

1233 Mercy T 
1297 Mary F Hagen 

1316 Jabez F 
1352 Albert W 

Snow 

1114 Olive 

1253 Venus 
SeuLE 

1135 Elizabeth B 

1137 Augustus H 

1138 Amanda 
1152 Otis 

1195 Caroline E 

1317 Mary H 

1318 Irene L Deane 
Sparrow 

1186 James P 

1187 Persis L 

1353 Emma J 

1354 Sarah F C 

1355 Sarah L Washburn 
Stearns 

1387 Rev George W 

1388 Sarah E 
Swift 

1221 John L 
Thatcher 

1275 Clarinda 
Thomas 

960 Mary A "Wrightington 

1074 Clarissa J 

1160 Susan M Eddy 

1224 Albert 

1309 Augustus L 

1310 Theodosia 

1311 John B 

1312 Susan L Palmer 
1324 Lucy W Bourne 

1371 Sarah A 

1372 Annie S 
1390 Lewis R 

Thompson 
1085 Franklin 8 



1096 Ivory H 

1097 Jerusha B 
109S Ivory B 

1099 Philander 

1100 Eliza G 

1101 Angeline F Cornish 

1102 Mary E 

1103 Philander W 

1104 Charles L 

1105 Ann E 

1106 Alfred W 

1123 Ruel Francis 

1124 Eliza P Shaw 

1125 Lucia A Washburn 

1126 Ellen W Gray 
1129 Lucy A Cushman 
1156 Edward 

1159 Mary Abby 

1168 Susan M Nichols 

1169 Ruel 

1170 Leroy 

1171 R Ella S Wood 

1172 S Evelyn 

1173 David W 

1174 Maudana A 

1175 Weltha Emma 

1222 Lewis H 

1223 Mary H 
1266 Marcus M 

1356 Cora F 

1357 Leslie I 
Thornton 

1358 Lily H R A Durfee 
Thurston 

1087 Francis T 

1258 Marcia E 

1374 Jason F 
Tilson 

1119 Amanda 
Tinkham 

972 Jane Freeman 

1109 Lydia A Phillips 

1196 Sarah E Chase 

1382 Rachel May 

1393 E Elvira 
Vaitghan 

1192 William H 

1225 Abby L Ellis 

1256 Harrison W 

1257 Lydia B S 

1328 Lucy J Wrightington 
Warren 

1147 John M 

1157 Polly L 

1396 Jane W 
Washburn 

1125 Lucia A Thompson 

1313 Emma B 



1355 Sarah L Sparrow 
Waterman 

1359 Rhoda S Ellis 
Weston 

1116 Mary Higgins 

1151 Louise L Reynolds 

1260 Laura M 

1289 Marcia 
Wilbur 

1018 Perry A 

1141 Emeline 

1226 Lucretia E Wood 

1254 Horatio N 

1255 Mary A 
1385 George H 

Williams 

1127 Helen E Clark 

1276 Sara S 
Willis 

1115 Mary J 
Wood 

1003 Mercy L 

1089 Willard 

1090 Anna W 

1091 Warren 

1092 Julia M 
1107 Pauline T 
1103 Mary F Dexter 

1121 William W 

1122 Maria A 
1146 Louisa E 

1171 R Ella 8 Thompson 

1226 Lucretia E Wilbur 

1227 Albert J 

1228 Eliab 

1234 Benjamin F 

1235 Louisa 

1250 John F 

1251 Maria L 
1282 Anna S 

1325 Edgar W 

1326 Mary C Bowman 

1327 Horace F 

1360 Annie A Bowman 
1383 Nellie F 

1394 Florence J E 
Wright 

1290 W Scott 

1330 Kate L 

1334 Mercy M 
Wrightington 

960 Mary Ann Thomas 

1094 Henry 

1328 Lucy J Vaughan 

1329 Charles G 

1361 Soranus G 
1401 Roxanna C 



124 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 



DESCRIPTIVE CATALOG 

OP THE 

MEMBERS OF THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 
MIDDLEBORO, MASSACHUSETTS 

(Continued from the Church Book published in 1854) 
EXPLANATORY NOTE 

The names are numbered at the left chronologically in the 
order of joining. Dates are generally expressed by number of 
year, month and day. 

Figures in parenthesis following a name indicate husband or 
wife. 

Other figures denote kindred; thus "fa 964" appended to a 
person's name would mean that his father's name is numbered 
964. 

Besides abbreviations of obvious meaning the following are 



here 


used : — 








ad = 


adopted 




gr = 


grand, or great 


ae 


aetatis, or 


age 


h 


husband 


br 


brother 




m 


married 


ccc 


Central Cong'l church 


mo 


mother 


ch 


church 







original or maiden name 


d 


died 




re-ad m 


re-admitted 


dea 


deacon 




s 


son, or son of 


dau 


daughter 




sis 


sister 


dis 


dismissed 




sus 


suspended 


fa 


father 




w 


wife of 


fr 


from 




wid 


widow of 



The labor of preparing this list of names from number 1085 
to 1281 was largely done by the late deacon Alfred Wood. 

The first thirteen names following, being those of present 
or recent members, are repeated from the volume of 1854. 



DESCRIPTIVE CATALOG 



125 



1823 

857 No 23 Lauretta Ann (Fuller) Darling (848) grmo 647, d '95 1 5 ae 85 

1838 

955 Se 2 Jane E. (Eddy) Cobb, re-adm '61, see below 
960 " Mary A. (Thomas) Wrightington (1361) mo 921, d '95 
5 25 ae 74 
1840 
970 Se 6 Ann E. (Eddy) Pratt, re-adm '75 
972 " Jane (Freeman) Tinkham (997) grmo 856, mo 1061, sis 

1055. 1056 
974 Lucia Maria Nichols (1167) dau Lemuel Cole, grfa 665 

1841 

987 Ja 4 Lois Deane, fa 964, mo 986 

988 " Charlotte E. (Eddy) Pratt, re-adm '62 

1003 Mh 7 Mercy Lewis Wood, dau Eliab, mo 768, grfa 747, br 1228, 
sis 1235 
1842 
1018 Je 26 Perry A. Wilbur, re-adm '66 

1851 
1055 Ja 5 Mercy Eddy Bryant (1154) mo 1061, sis 972, 1056, 1130, 
grmo 856, grgrmo 486, grgrgrmo 127 
1853 
1074 My 1 Clarissa Jane Thomas, mo 1073, br 957, 1390 
1084 No 6 Ehoda J. Savery, w George S. [his fa 667, grmo 555] 
dau Asaph Churchill, niece 1359, grfa 720 



1088 



1857 

1085 My 3 Franklin Southworth Thompson (1086) fa 994, sis 1275 

1086 " Lucy Macintosh (Putnam) Thompson (1085) fa 939 

1087 " Francis Thomas Thurston (1258) s of Thomas, s 1374, dis 
M. E. ch. '72 1 5, re-adm '78 9 1 

Azubah H. Caswell, fr Bridgewater, dau James Hooper, 
wid Zephaniah, d '64 5 10 ae 80 

1089 " Willard Wood (1090) fr Bridgewater, s of Kufus, s 1091, 

d '87 4 2 ae 84 

1090 " Anna AV. Wood (1089) fr Bridgewater, dau Geo. Chipman, 

1st h Caswell, d '75 2 23 ae 73 

1091 " Warren Wood (1092) fr Bridgewater, fa 1089, s 1325, dau 

1.326, d '92 11 12 ae 57 

1092 " Julia M. Wood (1091 ) fr Bridgewater, dau Salmon Caswell, 
mo 1065 

Oc 1 Olive E. Gisby, w Thos. jr., dau Jonathan Morse, s 1272, 

d '71 9 27 ae 48 
1858 
Ja 3 Henry Wrightington, s of David, dis N. Carver '70 11 4 

Betsy L. (Pratt) Morris, fa 1149, 1st h O. Shaw, 2d E. G. 
Morris, dis Abington '69 2 12 



1093 

1094 
1095 



126 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

1096 No 7 Ivory H. Thompson (1097) fa 705, d '87 11 3 ae 79 

1097 " Jerusha B. Thompson (1096) grmo 643, br 1186, d '88 1 3 

ae 73 

1098 " Ivory B. Thompson, fa 1096, d '66 8 10 ae 29 

1099 " Philander Thompson (1100) s of Thomas, mo 655, dau 

1101, 1102, 1105, 1126, 1175, s 1103, 1104, d '77 8 9 ae 76 

1100 " Eliza G. Thompson (1099) dau Martin Giles, d '93 9 24 ae 80 

1101 " Angeline F. (Thompson) Cornish (1110) fa 1099 

1102 " Mary Elizabeth Thompson, fa 1099 

1103 " Philander Williams Thompson (1129) fa 1099, s 1357, d 

'92 1 26 ae 51 

1104 " Charles L, Thompson, fa 1099, dis Cawker City, Kan. 

'80 2 29 

1105 " Ann E Thompson (1106) fa 1099, dis CCC '83 2 18 

1106 " Alfred W. Thompson (1105) fa 1169, dis CCC '83 2 18 

1107 " Pauline T. Wood, mo 1020, sis 1108, br 1227, dis Maiden '93 

1108 " Mary P. (Wood) Dexter, w Geo., mo 1020, sis 1107, br 

1227, dis Mattapoisett '80 9 3 

1109 " Lydia Ann (Tinkham) Phillips, w James, dau Alvah Tink- 

ham, sis 1196, 1st h Chas Parlow, 2d Asa Nichols 
Charles F. Cornish (1101) fa 1163 
Mary Louisa Cornish, fa 1163 

Deborah Gisby, fa 773, d '94 8 6 in Brockton 

Julia Henrietta Osgood, mo 941 

Olive Snow (1253) fa 802, sis 1083, 1115, o Willis, d '84 11 12 

ae64 
Mary J. Willis, fa 802, sis 1083, 1114, d '88 11 28 ae 56 
Mary (Weston) Higgins, fa 839, w Jesse T. of Wellfleet, 

dis CCC '93 10 22 

1117 " Nancy D. Deane fr Eaynham, w Seth, o Hall, dau 1343, 

d '91 10 29 ae 69 
1861 

1118 Ap 28 Harriet Freeman (1177) br 1231, dis Hudson '92 11 20 
(955) Jl 7 Jane Ellen (Eddy) Cobb, wid Timothy, fr Central ch. 

Fall River, fa 944, dis CCC '75 6 27, d '95 2 3 ae 87 

1119 No 3 Amanda Tilson, w Ichabod, o Jones, 1st h McAllister, 

d '66 4 4 ae 64 
1862 

1120 My 4 Rev. Francis Greenleaf Pratt (988) s of Greenleaf, fr Mai- 

den, s 1212, 1213, d '91 8 17 ae 70 
(988) " Charlotte Elizabeth (Eddy) Pratt (1120) fr Maiden, fa 718 

1121 No 2 William Wirt Wood (1282) fa 1234, br 1327, dis Stoughton 

'64 2 28, m '65, re-adm '77 



1110 


a 


1111 


u 




1859 


1112 


Mh6 


1113 


(( 


1114 


No 6 


1115 


a 


1116 


ii 





1863 


1122 


Ja 4 


1123 


(( 


1124 


(( 


1125 


(( 



DESCRIPTIVE CATALOG 127 



Maria A. Wood, dau Joshua, grgrmo 697, d '66 8 9 ae 23 
Ruel Francis Thompson (1124) fa 1169, dau 1356, dea '92 
Eliza P. (Shaw) Thompson (1123) dau Ira, grgrfa 807 
Lucia A. (Thompson) Washbui-n, fa 1169, m '74 A. R. of 
Freetown, dis Central ch. Fall River '82 12 10 

1126 " Ellen W. (Thompson) Gray, fa 1099, m '67 Amasa, jr., dis 

Somerset '70 6 19 

1127 " Helen Elizabeth (Williams) Clark, w D. Seely of N. Y., 

mo 991, sis 1276, dau 1303, dis Presb. ch. Elizabeth, N. J. 
'70 1 28 

1128 " Susan H. (Cushmau) Hambly, dau Samuel, sis 1129, 1294, 

m John B. '70, dis Episc. ch. Portsmouth, R. I. '77 3 2 

1129 " Lucy Ann (Cushman) Thompson (1103) sis 1128, 1294, 

sl357 

1130 " Virtue M. Penniman (1231) mo 1061, o Freeman, dau 1373 
1864 

1131 Jl 3 De Witt C. Bradford (1132) s of Luther, sis 1350, dis Rock- 

land '80 9 3 

1132 " Lydia R. Bradford (1131) fa 978 (Isaac Soule of Halifax) 

dis Rockland '90 10 5 
George E. Cobb (1134) fa 1206, d '68 7 11 ae 35 
Martha Cobb (1133) fr Raynham, dau Dr. Elisha Hayward, 

d '71 11 2 ae 36 



1133 


Au 14 


1134 


(( 




1865 


1135 


My 7 



Elizabeth B. Soule (866) wid James, dau Isaac Brown, fr 
2d ch. Abington, dis CCC '06 9, d '95 1 11 in Brockton 

1136 " Sarah B. Coffin, w Samuel C, dau George W. ^Nye, fr Nan- 

tucket, s 1339, d '91 6 29 ae 69 

1137 Oc 29 Augustus Hamilton Soule (1138) fa 1152, dau 1317, 1318, 

dea '78 

1138 " Amanda Soule (1137) dau William Sears of Halifax 
1866 

1139 Se 2 Rev. RuFUS M. Sawyer (1140) fr York, Me., dis Iowa 

City '70 1 7, d LeMars, la. '72 11 29 ae 52 

1140 " Sophia B. Sawyer (1139) fr York, Me., o Blake, dis Iowa 

City '70 1 7, d '91 11 21 in Dakota, ae 70 
(1018) " Perry A. Wilbur (1141 2d w) fr Presb. ch. Newcastle, Pa. 

1141 " Emeline Wilbur (1018) dau Thomas Wilder, fr Presb. ch. 

Newcastle, Pa. 

1142 No George L. Aldeu (1143) fr Bap. ch. Lyme, N. H. dau 1193, 

1194, dis Kidder, Mo. '69 8 22 

1143 " Marietta Alden (1142) dau Joseph Bump, dis Kidder, Mo. 

'69 8 22 

1144 '' Mary Ann Smith, wid Darius, dau James M. Ashton 



128 



FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 



1145 


No 5 


1146 


a 




1867 


1147 


Ja 6 


1148 


it 



Mh 3 



1149 

1150 
1151 

1152 
1153 
1154 
1155 
1156 
1157 
1158 
1159 



1160 My 5 

1161 

1162 

1163 

1164 
1165 
1166 
1167 

1168 
1169 

1170 
1171 
1172 
1173 
1174 
1175 
1176 
1177 



Esther S. Bryant, dau Isaac, br 1202 
Louisa Elizabeth Wood, fa 1234 

John Milton Warren (1157) fa 696 

Orsamus Littlejohn (1062, 1238) s of Wm., mo 805, dau 

1259, s 1398, d '86 10 17 ae 82 
Simeon M. Pratt (1350 2d w) fa 772, dau 1349, d '88 2 19 

ae 82 
Leonard Driggs, dau 1295, 1296, dea '72, d '85 1 24 ae 69 
Louise L. (Weston) Keynolds, dau Dura, grfa 918, sis 

1258, 1301, m Dexter of Stoughton, d '74 7 30 ae 27 
Otis Soule (952) fa 664, s 1137, dau 1195, d '71 8 13 ae 72 
John Bennett, s of Thomas, neph 1240, d '92 10 5 ae 83 
Ira Bryant (1055) s of Ezekiel, s 1201, 1336, dau 1158, 1360 
Job E. Haskins (973) ad dau 1241 

Edward Thompson (1027) s of Francis, d '73 4 14 ae 62 
Polly L. Warren (1147) dau Ezra Wood 
Lucy S. (Bryant) Bliss, fa 1154, m Oscar 
Mary Abby Thompson (996) fr M. E. ch. N. Bedford, dau 

Moses Carr, step-ch 1173, 1174, d '93 5 14 ae 64 
Susan M. (Eddy) Thomas (1390) dau Wm. S., sis 1009, 

d '89 9 4 ae 59 
William Cady Eddy (942) s of Wm. S., sis 1160, s 1252, 

dau 1162 
Anna C. Eddy, fa 1161, dis Presb. ch. E. Orange, N. J. 

'80 11 7 
Josiah T. Cornish (1056) s of Wm., grfa 593, s 1110, dau 

1111, d'82 8 3ae69 
Arad Bryant (1165) s of Levi, br 1242, sis 1244, ad dau 1166 
Betsy J. Brj^ant (1164) dau Ruel Simmons, d '92 7 8 ae 75 
Sarah Ella Bryant, ad dau of 1164, d '85 7 29 af 32 
James Gilbert Nichols (974) s of Gilbert, dau 1168, 

d '92 11 11 ae 79 
Susan M. (Nichols) Thompson (1266) fa 1167, d '82 6 20 ae 40 
Ruel Thompson (1007) fa 705, s 1106, 1123, 1170, dau 1125, 

1171, 1172, d '78 9 3 ae 71 
Leroy Thompson, fa 1169 

Rhoda Ella S. (Thompson) Wood (1227) fa 1169 
Sarah Evelyn Thompson, fa 1169 
David W. Thompson, fa 996, step-mo 1159, sis 1174 
Mandana A. Thompson, fa 996, step-mo 1159, br 1173 
Weltha Emma Thompson, fa 1099 
Jacob Atwood (1004) fa 840, d '92 1 25 ae 83 
Morton Freeman (1118) mo 1001, dau 1251, s of Josiah, 

d '88 3 24 ae 80 



DESCRIPTIVE CATALOG 129 

1178 My 5 Benjamin Freeman (1179) mo 106], dau 1180, 1181 

1179 " Nancy C. Freeman (1178) fa 1050, o Fuller, sis 1189 

1180 " Angeline Ella (Freeman) Howard (1285) fa 1178 

1181 " Susan E. (Freeman) Bryant, w Walter T., fa 1178 

1182 " Samuel Freeman (1183) mo 1061, dau 1184 

1183 " Anna B. Freeman (1182) dau of S. Tinkham, sis 1197, 

d '91 5 20 ae 75 

1184 " Henrietta Freeman, fa 1182 

1185 " Andrew Freeman (1315) fa 1182 

1186 " James P. Sparrow (1187) s of James, grmo 643, sis 1C97, 

dau 1355, d '85 7 5 ae 60 

1187 " Persis Lavinia Sparrow (1186) dau of S. Smith, d '92 2 17 

ae 67 

1188 " William H. Crosby (1189) s of Nathan, dau 1342 

1189 " Maria A. Crosby (1188) fa 1050, o Fuller, step-rao 1269, 

sis 1179 

1190 " Benjamin Loring Boomer (1191) dis South eh. Brockton 

'89 4 11 

1191 " Eebecca Churchill Boomer (1190) o Waterman, sis 1270, 

dis Brockton '89 4 11 

1192 " William H. Vaughan (1083) s of Cushman, dau 1225, 

d '85 6 9 ae 67 

1193 " Phebe Ann (Alden) Fuller, fa 1142, dis Kidder, Mo. 

'69 8 22, m '72 Albert H. [his grfa 1050] of Brockton 

1194 " Etta Paulina (Alden) Baldwin, fa 1142, dis Kidder, Mo. 

'69 8 22, m '71 W. W. of Mo. 

1195 " Caroline E. Soule, fa 1152 

1196 " Sarah E. (Tinkham) Chase, dau of Alvah, w John, sis 

1109, d '75 9 1 ae 25 

1197 " Lucy T. Fuller, sis 1183, wid Amos S. 

1198 " Annie Cobb, mo 955, sis 1207, dis CCC with mo '75 6 27 

1199 Je 21 John McCrillis (1200) fr Grafton, dau 1211, s 1274, 1348, 

d '94 12 28 ae 84 

1200 " Sarah A. McCriliis (1199) dau Asa Coggeshall, d '88 9 3 

ae69 

1201 Jl 7 George F. Bryant (1331, 1298) fa 1154 

1202 " IsaacBryaut, jr. (1203) sis 1145, d '94 7 5 ae 65 

1203 " Irene Bryant (1202) dau Henry L. Thomas 

1204 " James S. Bump (1205) s of James, d '80 7 14 ae 73 

1205 " Huldah P. Bump (1204) dau Benj. Warren, d '95 6 16 ae 84 

1206 " Heman Cobb (847) s of Heman of Plymouth, d '68 12 27 

ae64 

1207 " Sarah B. (Cobb) Smith, m Earle, mo 955, sis 1198, dis CCC 

'77 5 4 



130 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

1208 Jl 7 Joshua M. Eddy (10G8) fa 944, dau 1273, d '80 3 17 ae 62 

1209 " Jephthah Leach, s of Benj. of Bridgewater, d '08 8 25 ae 88 

1210 " Giles Leach, fa 1048, dis llaynham '77 12 9 

1211 " Mary E. McCrillis, fa 1199 

1212 " Francis G. Pratt, jr., fa 1120, dis Berkeley Temple, Bos- 

ton, '87 11 27 

1213 " George W. Pratt, fa 1120 

1214 " Clara Pease, dau of Joseph, dis Bap. ch. '77 6 30 

1215 " Ebenezer A. Shaw (1210, 1308) mo 1217, d '94 11 20 ae 54 
1210 " Sarah M. Shaw (1215) dau Harrison Shaw, of Carver, sis 

1313, d '78 30 ae 38 

1217 " Relief Shaw, s 1215, w Ebenezer C, dau Benj. Shaw, 

d '86 11 9 ae 85 

1218 " Albert Allen Savery (1219) fa 1003, dau 1220, dis CCC 

'77 5 4 

1219 " Elizabeth Thomas Savery (1218) dau James Shurtleff, dis 

CCC '77 5 4 

1220 " Elizabeth A. (Savery) Ingalls, w Charles F., fa 1218, dis 

CCC '77 5 4 

1221 " John L. Swift, s of Henry, grmo 780 

1222 " Lewis Henry Thompson (1223) s of Lewis, br 1206 

1223 " Mary W. Thompson (1222) step-fa 1254, mo 1255 

1224 " Albert Thomas (901) mo 1017, d '87 4 4 ae 82 

1225 " Abby L. (Vaughan) Ellis, w Isaiah R., fa 1192, dis CCC 

'90 12 28 

1226 " Lucretia E. (Wilbur) Wood (1327) m '70, fa 1254, mo 

1255, dau 1383, dis Eliot ch. Mewton '75 10 10,re-adm '78 
Albert J. Wood (1171) mo 1020, sis 1107, 1108, dea '85 
Eliab Wood, jr. (1005) mo 768, s 1250, sis 1003, 1235, dis 

Northboro '75 12 19 
Charlotte H. Gurney, w Elbridge, sis 1254, d '68 2 4 ae 27 
Desire R. Hagen, fr F. W. Bap. ch. Boston, w Charles, 

dau of Converse Reed, dau 1297, 1298, 1299, step-dau 1237 

1231 Oc 6 Prince Penniman (1130) s of Prince, sis 1118, dau 1240, 

1314, 1300, 1373, d '82 8 20 ae 78 

1232 " James Smith (1233) s of Timothy, s 1352 

1233 " Mercy T. Smith (1232) dau Ebenezer Colwell, sis 960 

1234 " Benjamin F. Wood (1235) s of Alfred, s 1121, 1327, dau 

1140, d '79 5 12 ae 75 

1235 " Louisa Wood (1234) dau of Eliab, br 1228, d '79 4 29 ae 09 

1236 " Deborah C. Shaw, dau of Elijah, d '81 6 2 ae 48 

1237 " Harriet S. (Hagen) Kendall, m Horace '88, step-mo 1230, 

dis Piedmont ch. Worcester, '79 1 81 

1238 No 2 Eliza S. Littlejohn (1148) fr M. E. ch., wid Lewis Holmes, 

dau David Hathaway, d '90 6 21 ae 74 



1227 


(( 


1228 


a 


1229 


An 30 


1230 


Se 20 



1243 




1244 




1245 




1246 




1247 




1248 




1249 






1868 


1250 


Ja 5 


1251 


u 


1252 


(.1 


1253 


(.1 


1254 


a 



DESCRIPTIVE CATALOG l3l 

1239 No 2 Everett William Savery, mo 1064 

1240 " Grover Bennett, s of Jacol), unc 1153 

1241 De 1 Elizabeth II (Haskins) Gifford, 1st h Francis, 2(1 h 

ad dau of 1155, o 

1242 " Lorin Bryant (1243) s of Levi, br 1164, sis 1244, d '88 4 20 

ae 78 
Lois L. Bryant (1242) dau Saml. Fuller of Livermore, Me. 
Kebecca Bryant, br 1164, 1242, d '86 5 18 ae 83 
Anna E. Leach, fa 1048, dis Bridgewater '77 12 9 
Amanda (Penniman) Burgess, fa 1231, w Robert 
Jerusha Raymond, w Ellis, o Clark, s 1248, dau 1249, d 
Alexander Raymond, mo 1247, drowned in Attleboro 
Lydia A. (Raymond) Moulton, mo 1247, w Royal, dis 

Abington '74 5 2, d 

John F. Wood (1251) fa 1228, dis Northboro '75 12 19 
Maria L. Wood (1250) fa 1177, dis Northboro '75 12 19 
Warburton Osgood Eddy (1294) fa 1161 
Venus Snow (1114) s of" Aaron, d '93 2 10 ae 77 
Horatio Nelson Wilbur (1255 2d w) s Marshall, dau 1226, 
1392, s 1385 

1255 " Mary A. Wilbur (1254 2d h) dau John Morse, 1st h Cephas 

Holmes, dau 1223, 1226, 1392, s 1385 

1256 " Harrison W. Vaughan (1257 3d w) s of Ebenezer, d '80 7 11 

ae66 

1257 " Lydia B. Vaughan (1256) dau Benj. Thomas, 1st h Wm. 

Shurtleft" 

1258 " Marcia Ellen Thurston (1087) dau Dura Weston, grfa 

918, sis 1151, 1301, dis M. E. ch. '72 1 5, re-adm '78 9 1 
Elizabeth J. Littlejohn, fa 1148, mo 1062 
Laura M. Weston, w Robert, dau of Geo. Thomas, d '68 9 

26, ae 23 
George II. Place, s of Richard, dis N. Rochester 'SO 2 ] 

Rev. EphraimN. Hidden (1263) dau 1264, fr Great Falls, 
N. H., dis E. Medway '74 11 13 

1263 " Mary Elizabeth Hidden (1262) fr Gt. Falls, N. H., dau 

Josiah Parsons, dis E. Medway '74 11 13 

1264 " Emily P. Hidden, fa 1262, fr Gt. Falls, N. H., dis E. Med- 

way '74 11 13, d '82 in Chester, N. H. 

1265 " Thomas W. Sampson, s of Ichabod, dis Braintree '71 4 10 

1266 " Marcus M. Thompson (1168) br 1222, dis M. E. ch. Cam- 

pello '84 8 24 

1267 " Albert T. Savery (1268) s of Peregrine 



1259 


u 


1260 


Au 21 


1201 


No 1 




1870 


1262 


Mh 4 



132 FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 

1268 Mh 4 Maria S. Savery (1267) dau of James Waterman 

1269 Ap 29 Mary H. Fuller (1050 2d w) sis 995, step-dau 1189, dau 

Seth Southworth, fr CCC, d '78 12 21 ae 71 
1871 

1270 Jl 2 Betsy Drinkwater, sisll91, o Waterman, w Isaac W., dis 

Campello '86 3 5 

1271 No 3 Sarah E. Shaw, w Charles, fr Braintree, dau John A. 

Sampson, s 1351 
1873 

1272 Jl 6 Edward T. Gisby, mo 1093, grfa 928, d '77 7 17 ae 23 

1875 

1273 Mh 7 Florence (Eddy) Jedermann, w K., m '89, fa 1208, dis 

House of Hope, St. Paul, Min. '89 8 25 

1274 " Herbert O. McCrillis, fa 1199, dis Winslow ch. Taunton 

'79 6 29 

1275 Jl 2 Clarinda Thatcher, w Lewis, fa 994, br 1085 

1276 " Sara Stephens Williams, mo 991, sis 1127, dis Presb. ch. 

Seattle, Wash. '94 2 11 

1277 " Rev. Theophilus Parsons Sawin (1278) fr Manchester, 

N. H. dis W. Somerville '78 1 25 

1278 " Martha M. Sawin (1277) fr Manchester, IST. H., o Mason, 

dis W. Somerville '78 1 25 

1279 " Lura S. Sawin, fa 1277, fr Manchester, N. H., dis W. 

Somerville '78 1 25 

1280 " William M. Sawin, fa 1277, fr Manchester, N. H., dis W. 

Somerville '78 1 25 
(970) Se 3 Ann Elizabeth (Eddy) Pratt (976) fr Beneficent ch. , Provi- 
dence, R. I., fa 682, mo 797 
1876 

1281 Jl 2 Lucy Ann Morse, w Emerson P., dau John Blackburn, 

dis Advent ch. '93 12 14 
1877 
(1121) My 4 William W. Wood (1282) fr Eliot ch., Newton, dea 
'78-89 

1282 " Anna S. Wood (1121) fr Eliot ch., Newton, dau Josiah 

Bennett 

1283 Jl 1 Ephraim Hathaway (1284) s Randall 

1284 " Isabella Priscilla Hathaway (1283) dau Isaac Shurtleff 

1285 " Asaph E. Howard (1180) s of Asaph 

1286 " John Scanlin (1287) s of James 

1287 " Betsy Barker Scanlin (1280) dau Josephus Bump, 1st h 

Cyrus P. Caswell, d 1894 9 4, ae 76 

1288 " Elizabeth H. Shurtleff, 2d w of Lothrop, dau Richard 

Whitmore 

1289 " Marcia Weston, dau Seneca, d '90 4 22 ae 72 



DESCRIPTIVE CATALOG 133 

Winfield Scott Wright (1334) dau 1330, d '89 10 20 ae 48 

Clara A. Baguall, dau Oliver 

Alice H. Cornish, fa 1110 

George Alton Cox (1299) s of George 

Elvira Elizabeth (Cushman) Eddy (1252) sis 1128, 1129 

Deborah L. Driggs, fa 1150 

Mary A. Driggs, fa 1150, d '89 9 21 ae 37 

Mary F. (Hagen) Smith (1352) mo 1230 

Roxana E. (Hagen) Bryant (1201) mo ]230 

Clara Augusta (Hagen) Cox (1293) mo 1230 

John T. Haskell, dis CCC '83 4 29 s of John 

Augusta Hope Morse, w Thomas, sis 1151, 1258, grfa 918 

John P. Morse (1303) sis 1304, s of Barzillai 

Fidelia J. Morse (1302) dau Lorenzo Thomas, grfa 918 

Lucy F. Morse, br 1302 

Luther W. Savery, br 1267, d '86 10 25 ae 46 

Benjamin Shurtleff, s of Barzillai, dau 1307, d '93 4 21 

ae 81 
B. Jennie (Shurtleff) Shaw, w Benjamin C, fa 1306 
Cynthia A. Shurtleff, w Virgil, dau Ephraim Butler, dis 

Bap. ch. '87 3 4 
Augustus L. Thomas (1310) fa 957 
Theodosia B. Thomas (1309) dau Thomas Vaughan of 

Carver 

1311 " John B. Thomas (1371) sis 1324, s of Arad, dis CCC 

'89 12 19 

1312 " Susan Louise (Thomas) Palmer, dau Geo., w. Stephen II., 

dis Princeton, Minn. 
Emma B. Washburn, w Asaph Foster, sis 1216 
Addie A. (Penniman) Bryant, w Wallace, fa 1231, mo 1130 
Matilda R. (Simmons) Freeman (1185) dau Henry A. 
Jabez Francis Smith, s of Jabez, aunts 865, 1051, dis Rock 

'83 11 2 
Mary H. Soule, fa 1137, d '78 11 15 ae 16 
Irene L. (Soule) Deane (1344) m '94, fa 1137 

Samuel Shaw Butler, s of Samuel, sus '79 9 5 
Rev. Nathan T. Dyer (1321) fr Union ch. Groton, dis 
N. Dighton '87 8 7 

1321 " Harriet M. Dyer (1320) o Mann, fr Union ch. Groton, dis 

N. Dighton '87 8 7 

1322 " John Elijah McMann, s of William 

1323 " Samuel Dexter Raymond, s of Samuel, cons 1335 

1324 " Lucy Williams (Thomas) Bourne, w Fred, br 1311 



1290 


Jl 1 


1291 


Sep 2 


1292 


(( 


1293 


a 


1294 


a 


1295 


u 


1296 


u 


1297 


ii 


1298 


a 


1299 


t( 


1300 


(,i 


1301 


ii, 


1302 


iC 


1303 


(i 


1304 


(1 


1305 


(1 


1306 


u 


1307 


i( 


1308 


u 


1309 


u 


1310 


u 



1313 


u 


1314 


No 4 


1315 


(( 


1316 


ii 


1317 


a 


1318 


u 




1878 


1319 


Se 1 


1320 


u 



134 



FIRST CHURCH, MIDDLEBORO 



(1087) Se 1 
(1258) 
1325 
1326 

1327 

(1226) 
1328 

1329 
1330 

1879 

1331 Ja 3 

1332 " 

1333 " 

1334 Se 5 

1880 

1335 Ja 2 

1883 

1336 My 4 
1337 
1338 
1339 
1340 
1341 
1342 
1343 

1344 
1345 
1346 
1347 
1348 
1349 

1350 

1351 
1352 



Francis T.Thurston (1258) fr M. E. ch. 

Marcia E. Thurston (1087) fr M. E. ch. 

Edgar Warren Wood (1360) fa 1091 

Mary Caswell (Wood) Bowman (1362) fa 1091, d '88 2 14 

ae 22 
Horace Franklin Wood (1226) fr Eliot ch. Newton, fa 

1234, br 1121, dau 1383 
Lucretia E. Wood (1327) fr. Eliot ch. Newton 
Lucy Jane (Wrightington) Yaughan, w Harry, fa 1301, br 

1329, dis Allen St. M. E. ch. N. Bedford '86 9 2 
Charles Gilbert Wrightington (1401) fa 1361 
Kate Lewis Wright, fa 1290, d 79 5 18 ae 18 

Mary E. Bryant (1201) fr Freetown, m '76, dau Thomas 

Evans, d '83 4 24 ae 31 
Lucy H. Deane, w Orien E., dau J. Higgins of Orleans, 

dau 1333, 1345, s 1344, 1397 
Mary Eliza Deane, mo 1332 
Mercy M. Wright (1290) dau Robert Weston, d '84 5 22 

ae 40 

Frederic R. Raymond, s of John, ecus 1323, dis Bap. ch. 
S. Halifax '86 12 19 

Charles Morton Bryant, fa 1154 

Henry Solon Bryant, sis 1338, s of Henry 

Susan May Bryant, br 1337 

Charles Warren Coffin (1340) mo 1136 

Henrietta Eliza Coffin (1339) dau Rufus Butler of Falmouth 

Herbert Willard Cornish, fa 1110 

Eudora Frances (Crosby) Dempsey, fa 1188, w Robert M. 

Ella Louisa Deane, mo 1117, dis Porter ch. Brockton 

'95 1 27 
Albert Deane (1318) mo 1332 
Florence Deane, mo 1332 

Reuben Harlow (1364) d '89 3 5 in Lakeville, ae 69 
William Francis Malloy, s of Edward J., d '83 8 18 ae 19 
Walter Clifton McCrilfis, fa 1199 
Irene Bradford (Pratt) Brett, fa 1149, mo 1350, dis '93 

17, 1st ch. Brockton 
Irene Shaw Pratt (1149) dau of Luther Bradford, br 1131, 

dau 1349 
Charles Augustus Shaw, mo 1271 
Albert Wilson Smith (1297) fa 1232 



DESCRIPTIVE CATALOG 135 

1353 My 4 Emma Janette Sparrow, o Ward, w Samuel, (lis CCC 

'91 2 15 

1354 " Sarah Fearing Crocker Sparrow, dau Luther S. AV. Kiug, 

w Fred C. 

1355 " Sarah Lauretta (Sparrow) Washburn, fa 118G, m T. A. F. 

'93 

1356 " Cora Frances Thompson, fa 1123 

1357 " Leslie Irving Thompson, fa 1103, mo 1129 

1358 " Lily Henrietta Richmond Andrews (Thornton) Durfee, 

w Henry K., dau Wm. 

1359 " Rhoda Savery (Waterman) Ellis, niece of 1084, w Harri- 

son B., dau James H. 

1360 " Annie Ardelia (Wood) Bowman (1325, 1362) fa 1154 

1361 " Soranus Gilbert Wrighlington (960) s 1329, dau 1328, d 

'85 11 25 ae 66 

1362 Je 24 Abram Lincoln Bowman (1326, 1360) s of Stephen E. 

1363 " Mabelle Williams Clark, mo 1127, dis Episc. ch. Westerly, 

R. I. '94 3 18 

1364 " Betsey Harlow (1346) fr Central ch. Chelmsford, dau John 

Shaw 

1365 " Annie Wyman (Harwood) Cross, w Chas. E., dau Henry 

v., dis Bridgewater '86 12 19 

1366 " Mary White Phiuney, fa 1231, mo 1130, w Zenas 

1367 " Mary Ryan, dis Wareham '93 12 14 
1884 

1368 MyJ 4 Betsy Savery Shaw (1215) dau Benj. F. Dunham 

1886 

1369 My 2 Fred A, Conant, s of Winslow, fr Meth. ch., dis '92 1 1 to 

M. E. ch. K. Easton 

1370 " Lura Lorefia Dunham, w Charles H., o Lewis, d '90 9 5 

ae 24 

1371 " Sarah Addie Thomas (1311) dau Chas. Thomas, dis CCC 

'89 12 19 
1887 

1372 Mh 4 Annie S. Thomas, dau GJeorge, dis CCC '89 G 9 

1373 Jl 3 Arabella Pcnniraan, fa 1231 

1374 " Jason F. Thurston, fa 1087, dis '92 4 3 to M. E. ch. 
1889 

1375 Mh 1 Rev. Josiah Weatie Kingsbury (1376) fr Deerfield, 

N. IL, dau 1380, dis Braintree '94 4 22 

1376 " Mary H. Kingsbury (1.375) fr Deerfield, N. H., dau Charles 

Jackson, dis Braintree '94 4 22 

1377 Oc 31 William J. Kingsbury, fa 1375, fr Derry, N. H., dis Ray- 

mond, N. H. '91 12 27 



J-- 



136 



FIRST CHURCH, BIIDDLEBORO 



1396 





1890 


1378 


My 4 


1379 




1380 




1381 




1382 




1383 




1384 


Jl 6 


1385 


u 




1891 


1386 


Se 4 




1892 


1387 


No 20 


1388 


(( 


1389 


u 




1893 


1390 


My 7 




1894 


1391 


Ja 7 


1392 


u 


1393 


Jl 1 


1394 


u 


1395 


Se 23 





1895 


1397 


Ja 6 


1398 


Mh 3 


1399 


MhlO 



1400 



1401 Jl 7 



William Pitt Fessenden, sis 1379, br 1386, s of Marshall 

Sabiua Elizabeth Fessenden, br 1378, 1386 

Mabel H. Kingsbury, fa 1375, dis Braintree '93 12 21 

Ethel Gertrude Nichols, fa 1391 

Kachel May Tinkham, sis 1384, 1393, dau of Sylvanus 

Nellie Franklin Wood, fa 1327 

Annie J. Ryder, sis 1382, 1393, w S. Everett 

George Herbert Wilbur, fa 1254, mo 1255 

Edward Warren Fessenden (1400) fr Mayflower ch. 
Kingston, br 1378, sis 1379 

Rev. George Warren Stearns (1388) fr Acton 

Sarah Elizabeth Stearns (1387) fr Acton, dau Oliver S. Dow 

Eleanor A. Bradbury, fr Acton, dau Samuel 

Lewis R. Thomas (1160 2d w) fr Salmon Falls, N. H. mo 
1073, br 957, sis 1074 

Frank A. Nichols (1392) dau 1381, s of Stephen S. 

Mima Wilbur Nichols (1391) fa 1254, sis 1226, br 1385 

Emma Elvira Tinkham, sis 1382, 1384 

Florence J. E. Wood, dau Edgar D. 

Caroline Florence Cody, w John H., fr ch. of the Cove- 
nant, Shelby, Ala. 

Jane W. Warren, fr Lincoln, Me., wid Osman, dau Hum- 
phrey Chadbourne 

George Alfred Deane, mo 1332 

Ira Orsamus Littlejohn (1399) fa 1148, mo 1062 

Dorcas Susan Littlejohn (1398) dau Thomas Powell, fr 

Union ch. Newport, R. I. 
Laura J. Fessenden (1386) dau Thomas H. La Porte, fr 

Mayflower ch. Kingston 
lloxanna C. Wrightington (1329) dau Samuel S. Keyes 



